The Exploration of Disease Pattern, Zheng, for Differentiation of Allergic Rhinitis in Traditional Chinese Medicine Practice

Table 3

Characteristics of TCM patterns of 205 allergic rhinitis patients at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital.

	Lung qi deficiency	Dual deficiency of the lung-spleen qi	Kidney qi deficiency	𝑃 value
Number of cases	137	55	13
Age, mean ± SD^†	29.07 ± 13.17	25.29 ± 12.03	57.53 ± 12.96^*	<0.0001
Patients gender				0.690
Male	58	27	6
Female	79	28	7
Parents’ history of allergic diseases				0.234
None	70	24	9
One	58	24	2
Both	9	7	2
Personal history
Asthma	16	6	2	0.903
Atopic dermatitis	21	12	1	0.370
Urbanization level				0.423
Urban	93	32	9
Rural area	44	23	4
IgE level (IU/mL) mean ± SD^†	335.05 ± 456.07	420.90 ± 778.82	255.744 ± 433.59	0.494
MAST allergy test (positive/negative)	60/19	25/12	2/4	0.070
Symptom severity, mean ± SD^†	4.33 ± 2.08	4.64 ± 2.05	3.15 ± 2.23	0.072

^∗𝑃 value < 0.0001 compared to another two groups.
^† SD: standard deviation.