Research on the medication rules of Chinese herbal formulas on treatment of threatened abortion.

BACKGROUNDS: Threatened abortion (TA) is the most common complication during early pregnancy affecting 20%-25% pregnancies. A variety of Chinese herbal medicines have shown good protective effects against TA.

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the different prescriptions for TA and summarize the medication rules for such treatment.

METHODS

Data mining methods including frequency analysis, cluster analysis, factor analysis and association rule learning were used in this study.

RESULTS

In total, 171 herbs and 398 formulas were collected. The most frequently used herbs are Dipsaci Radix (Xuduan, accounts for 7.58%). The top three categories were deficiency-tonifying herbs (29.24%), wind-damp dispelling herbs (12.87%) and heat-clearing herbs (9.94%). Eleven factors and 8 clusters with clinical significance for prescription were formed by factor and cluster analyses.

CONCLUSIONS

Tonification methods including spleen and kidney nourishment are the main principles for TA treatment and Shoutai Pill can be used as the basic formula for clinical addition or subtraction.