The association between genetic risk and traditional Chinese medicine syndromes in T2DM patients: A latent class analysis

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndromes play a vital role in treating diabetes, and genetics have long been recognized as influcing factor of diabetes. This study aimed to confirm the latent classes of TCM syndromes in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients and to explore the association between genetic risk and those TCM syndromes classes. A total of 1045 T2DM patients from the Ningxia province of China were included in this study. The TCM syndromes scale was used to collect the syndrome differentiation information. Seven gene polymorphisms were assessed using standard procedures. Latent class analysis was used to determine unobserved classes of TCM syndromes. Multinomial logistic regression was employed to examine the relationships between gene risk and classes of TCM syndromes. The optimal number of latent classes was 3, labeled as blood stasis, phlegm dampness and depression heat, and blood deficiency and damp heat type. Almost 12% of the sample belonged to the blood deficiency and damp heat group. Participants with higher levels of gene risk score (RRR = 1.85, 95% CI: 1.18, 2.90) were more likely to have blood deficiency and damp heat type than those with lower levels of gene risk score. The findings provides a molecular biology basis for the objective study of TCM syndromes in T2DM and achieved a combination of macro and micro levels, and also provides a reference for patients to undergo syndrome differentiation and personalized intervention.