An analysis of medication rule for HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B based on association rule and complex system entropy clustering

Objective To investigate the features of traditional Chinese medicine( TCM) and prescription rules in the treatment of HBeAg- positive chronic hepatitis B( CHB). Methods A systematic search was performed for the articles on the TCM diagnosis and treatment of HBeAg-positive CHB,the information of TCM diagnosis and treatment in medical records were extracted,and a database was established after data standardization. The Traditional Chinese Medicine Inheritance Support System was used to investigate the medication rule. Results A total of 100 articles with 135 medical records were included in this study. A total of 220 types of Chinese materia medica were used,among which Bupleurum chinense,Salvia miltiorrhiza,Radix Glycyrrhizae,Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz.,and Poria cocos were frequently used. As for the meridian entry of drugs,liver meridian,spleen meridian,and stomach meridian were commonly used. The analysis showed that the core drugs for HBeAg- positive CHB were Bupleurum chinense,Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz.,Radix Paeoniae Alba,Radix Curcumae,Salvia miltiorrhiza,Radix Glycyrrhizae,Poria cocos,Polygonum cuspidatum,Astragalus membranaceus,Herba Artemisiae Scopariae,and Hedyotis diffusa. A total of 20 core drug combinations were deduced based on complex system entropy clustering,and 10 new prescriptions were obtained using unsupervised entropy hierarchical clustering. Conclusion In this study,literature mining and inductive analysis show that the syndromes of stagnation of liver qi and spleen deficiency and liver and gallbladder damp- heat are common syndrome types of HBeAg- positive CHB. The medicine suits and prescriptions refined in this study can be used for reference in clinical practice.