Abstract:

Objective To initially clarify the medication rules of Chinese herb formulae for bronchiectasis based on modern literature review and data mining. Methods The Chinese herb formulae for bronchiectasis published in CNKI, Wanfang and CQVIP, from establishment to July 31, 2020, with evidence for efficacy were collected. A total of 1056 references were retrieved, and of them, 110 eligible articles and 141 Chinese herb formulae were included. Frequency analysis, association rules and cluster analysis were used to analyze the data, to explore the potential medication rules for bronchiectasis. Results Using frequency analysis, it was found that 209 Chinese medicines were involved and 28 of them were used more than 15 times. By association rule analysis, 17 two-drug pairs and 15 three-drug pairs were found. By cluster analysis, 7 types of prescriptions or single drugs were found, and they focused on the functions of clearing lung heat, drying dampness, resolving phlegm, regulating qi, and replenishing qi, mainly for the syndrome of phlegm heat that obstruct the lung, the syndrome of the phlegm-dampness retention in the lung, and the syndrome of qi deficiency of both lung and spleen. Conclusion This study preliminarily determined the core framework of medication rules of Chinese herb formulae for bronchiectasis including core drugs, core types of herb, two-drug or three-drug drug pairs and core Chinese herb formula, which provides a beneficial exploration for revealing the general medication rules of chronic lung diseases such as bronchiectasis.

Key words: Bronchiectasis, Medicine,Chinese traditional, Medication reconciliation, Data mining, Traditional Chinese medicine prescription, Medication rules of Chinese herb formulae, Data interpretation,statistical