title: The pattern element scale: a brief tool of traditional medical subtyping for dementia.
abstract: Background. Syndromes are defined by traditional Chinese medicine as consisting of different pattern elements. Few scales have been designed for differentiating pattern elements of dementia and have shown major flaws. Thus, a new pattern element scale (PES) was developed. This study aimed to evaluate the utility of the PES in dementia patients. Methods. A total of 171 dementia patients were enrolled, and their pattern elements were ascertained, first by clinicians using the PES, then compared with results by two experts to be used as a standard criterion independently. Reliability of the subscales of the PES was assessed by receiver operator characteristic curves. Correlations between the subscales of the PES and cognition were calculated by canonical correlation analysis. Results. The PES consisted of 11 pattern element subscales. The area under the curves of all subscales was 0.7 or above. Phlegm muddiness, blood stasis, and yang hyperactivity subscales showed optimal sensitivity and specificity in discriminating pattern elements. Other subscales showed relatively lower sensitivity but higher specificity. Memory and language were significantly correlated to qi deficiency and the blood stasis pattern element. Conclusion. The PES can accurately and easily discriminate pattern elements and is a helpful tool for traditional medical subtyping of dementia.
authors.affiliation: Third Department of Neurology, Dongzhimen Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100700, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Jinzhou
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Ziyi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Long
authors.forename: Xiawei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Mingqing
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Jingnian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.forename: Jianping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Tonghua
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Pengwen
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Hengge
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: Yongyan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang