ABSTRACT
Objective: To analyze the distribution and characteristics of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Constitution in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). Methods: Divide the PBC patients who met the inclusion criteria into 3 groups according to the stage of disease development, including group A (group of basic normal), group B (group of symptom stage) and group C (group of de-compensation stage). Each group collected 46 cases, and every patient done investgations, including blood routine examination, live function test, image ultrasound examination, autoantibody examination and immuno-globulin test, and counted their clinical symptoms and judged all patients’ constitution of TCM. Results: 1) For 138 patients with PBC, the constitution of TCM is characterized by biased constitution, among which constitution of qi stagnation (19.57%) was the most, followed by constitution of qi asthenia (15.94%), constitution of yin asthenia (15.94%) and constitution of damp-heat (14.49%). There was no significant correlation between the type of constitution and the age of onset (P > 0.05). 2) The constitution types of A and B two groups were mainly constitution of qi stagnation, constitution of qi asthenia and constitution of damp-heat, while group C was mainly composed of constitution of blood stasis, constitution of yin asthenia and constitution of yang asthenia. And there was a correlation between the type of constitution and clinical stage (P < 0.05). 3) The highest positive rate of autoantibodies was constitution of qi stagnation, followed by constitution of damp-heat, constitution of qi asthenia and constitution of yin asthenia. The most abnormal liver function and immunoglobulin were constitution of qi stagnation, followed by constitution of qi asthenia, constitution of yin asthenia, constitution of damp-heat. Conclusion: Constitution of qi stagnation, constitution of qi asthenia, constitution of damp-heat and constitution of yin asthenia are the susceptible constitutions of PBC patients.