Analysis of Prescription Medication Rules of Chinese Herbal Medicine for Acute Exacerbation of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Based on Data Mining

Acute exacerbation of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (AE-IPF) is a life-threatening complication with limited effective therapeutic options and high mortality. Although Chinese herbal medicine is increasingly used as an adjunctive approach, the prescribing patterns and potential therapeutic principles of experienced traditional Chinese medicine practitioners for AE-IPF remain insufficiently characterized. This study aimed to characterize the prescription patterns of Chinese herbal medicine used by Professor Xu Zhiying for acute exacerbation of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (AE-IPF) using data-mining techniques. Medical records of patients diagnosed with AE-IPF treated at Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine from September 2019 to December 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. A total of 84 prescriptions from 42 patients were collected and entered into the Traditional Chinese Medicine Inheritance and Computing Platform. Prescription characteristics were analyzed using frequency analysis, association rule mining, and entropy hierarchical clustering. Among 112 identified herbal medicines, the cumulative frequency reached 3,004, and 22 herbs were used more than 50 times. The most frequently used herbs included Radix Scutellariae, Bulbus Fritillariae Thunbergii Miq., Pinellia ternata, Forsythia suspensa, Radix et Rhizoma Salviae Miltiorrhizae, and Magnolia officinalis. The dominant meridian distributions involved the lung, stomach, spleen, liver, and large intestine meridians. Association rule analysis identified 11 core herb combinations with support values ranging from 50 to 84, confidence values ranging from 0.82 to 1.00, and lift values greater than 1, indicating stable positive associations among herbal combinations. Entropy hierarchical clustering further generated four candidate formulas characterized by heat-clearing, phlegm-resolving, toxin-removing, and spleen-supporting effects. This study systematically characterized expert prescribing patterns for AE-IPF and provides hypotheses for subsequent clinical and experimental validation.