Clinical data mining on network of symptom and index and correlation of tongue-pulse data in fatigue population

Abstract

Background: Fatigue is a kind of non-specific symptom, which occurs widely in sub-health and various diseases. It is closely related to people's physical and mental health. Due to the lack of objective diagnostic criteria, it is often neglected in clinical diagnosis, especially in the early stage of disease. Many clinical practices and researches have shown that tongue and pulse conditions reflect the body's overall state. Establishing an objective evaluation method for diagnosing disease fatigue and non-disease fatigue by combining clinical symptom, index, and tongue and pulse data is of great significance for clinical treatment timely and effectively.

Methods: In this study, 2632 physical examination population were divided into healthy controls, sub-health fatigue group, and disease fatigue group. Complex network technology was used to screen out core symptoms and Western medicine indexes of sub-health fatigue and disease fatigue population. Pajek software was used to construct core symptom/index network and core symptom-index combined network. Simultaneously, canonical correlation analysis was used to analyze the objective tongue and pulse data between the two groups of fatigue population and analyze the distribution of tongue and pulse data.

Results: Some similarities were found in the core symptoms of sub-health fatigue and disease fatigue population, but with different node importance. The node-importance difference indicated that the diagnostic contribution rate of the same symptom to the two groups was different. The canonical correlation coefficient of tongue and pulse data in the disease fatigue group was 0.42 (P < 0.05), on the contrast, correlation analysis of tongue and pulse in the sub-health fatigue group showed no statistical significance.

Conclusions: The complex network technology was suitable for correlation analysis of symptoms and indexes in fatigue population, and tongue and pulse data had a certain diagnostic contribution to the classification of fatigue population.

Keywords: Complex network; Fatigue; Index; Symptom; Tongue and pulse data.

Fig.1

Overall flow diagram

Fig.2

Figures of TFDA-1 tongue and face diagnosis instrument. a Front view, b Profile view

Fig. 3

Tongue image analysis interface

Fig. 4

Figures of PDA-1 pulse diagnosis instrument and sphygmogram. a PDA-1 pulse diagnosis instrument and supporting equipment. b Sphygmogram of PDA-1 pulse diagnosis instrument

Fig.5

Symptom network of the sub-health fatigue group

Fig.6

Network of core symptom of the sub-health fatigue group. TC1: white tongue coating, LP1: headache, TC2: yellow tongue coating, QP1: sour, EM7: dreaminess, EM3: irritability, THA4: chest distress, HE13: xerophthalmia, TC6: thick coating, EM6: insomnia

Fig.7

Symptom and index network of the disease fatigue group

Fig.8

Network of core symptom of the disease fatigue group. TC1: white tongue coating, HE1: dizziness, TC2: yellow tongue coating, QP1: sour, EM7: dreaminess, TC6: thick coating, PU15: string-like pulse, TC11: greasy coating, EM6: insomnia, EM3: irritability

Fig.9

Network of core index of the group of disease fatigue. BRT13: basophil, BRT20: platelet distribution width, SBP: systolic blood pressure, BRT12: percentage of monocyte, DBP: diastolic blood pressure, RUT5: PH of urine, BRT8: hemoglobin, BRT10: hematocrit, BI15: uric acid, BMI: body mass index

Fig.10

Network of core symptom-indicator of the group of disease fatigue. TC1: white tongue coating, HE1: dizziness, TC2: yellow tongue coating, QP1: sour, EM7: dreaminess, TC6: thick coating, PU15: wiry pulse, TC11: greasy coating, EM6: insomnia, EM3: irritability, BRT13: basophil, BRT20: platelet distribution width, SBP: systolic blood pressure, BRT12: percentage of monocyte, DBP: diastolic blood pressure, RUT5: PH of urine, BRT8: hemoglobin, BRT10: hematocrit, BI15: uric acid, BMI: body mass index

Fig.11

Structure diagram of canonical correlation analysis of tongue and pulse parameters. The left indexes of a and b are the parameters of tongue, the right indexes are the parameters of pulse. The prefix TB represents the tongue body index, the prefix TC represents the tongue coating index. U1 is the representative comprehensive variable extracted from the tongue parameters, V1 is the representative comprehensive variable extracted from the pulse parameters. a Healthy controls. b Disease fatigue group