Kidney

Nephrotic Syndrome and Differential Diagnosis

By Gory ⋅ December 21, 2008 ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Chinese Medicine’s differential diagnosis (辨证论治) is what makes it different from the type of diagnostics we use these days. You look at color, you talk about hot and cold, you put extra emphasis on the tongue and its coating, and you talk about organs that are only partially related to the organs we now know.

Now, with the advent of pharmacology with technology at its fingertips, what is the use of this differential diagnosis? If we can now isolate a compound in Tripterygium that can help reduce proteinuria, why talk about differential diagnosis.

My teacher, when teaching about Nephrotic Syndrome and Chinese Medicine, had this to say:

Thirty years ago, we knew less about how to treat Nephrotic Syndrome. Now we know more and have steroids and immunosuppresors in our arsenal of tools. In Chinese Medicine, we have Tripterygium (雷公藤) in addition to Chinese Medicine Differential Diagnosis.

He continued by explaining that in the past, with Chinese Medicine’s Differential Diagnosis, the cure rate was 18%. Now, 12% actually recover on their own, and so you can’t fairly give Chinese Medicine the credit. So the most we can say is 6% of the recoveries can be credited to the use of traditional Chinese herbs.

In fact, with the use of Chinese herb in response to the differential diagnosis, we can

• Increase the effectiveness of the other three treatments
• Reduce the side effects
• reduce the percentage of relapse cases (within 1 year, 60% of the people relapse, especially when they catch a cold which compromises the treatment.)

Although it’s not the most evidence-based assertion, you’ll get the gist of his reasoning. The hidden assumption here is that Chinese Medicine is a personalized medicine, and because herbal formulas can shift and change with the changes in the patient’s body, it can follow the course of the main treatment and complement the use of steroids, immunosuppresors and Tripterygium.

Here’s more on the use of TCM to treat Nephrotic Syndrome.

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