Basic treatment principles for urinary tract infections with Chinese herbal medicine: An application of text mining

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most common infectious diseases occurring in either the community or healthcare setting. Approximately one third of all women have had at least one physician-diagnosed uncomplicated UTI by the age of 26 years. A broad range of pathogens can cause complicated UTI. Escherichia coli remains the most common organism causing UTI. Antimicrobial resistance is one of the most common problems in complicated UTI which can cause treatment failure and serious complications. Antibiotic-resistance has been increasing in the past decades worldwide. Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) has been an integral part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for thousands of years. Some Chinese herbs in the study were proved to have antibacterial activity, which prompted their compound prescription use in the management of UTI. Many herbal formulations have been developed and used in the treatment of UTI and were proved to be effective and safe. Yet the principles of treating UTI with CHMs are hard to manage due to the complexity of TCM theory. In this study, a novel text mining method was development based on a comprehensive collection of literatures in order to explore the treatment principles more intuitively. Networks of TCM patterns and CHMs which are most frequently used in UTI treatment are built-up and analyzed, two major principles are explored in treating UTI from 44,662 records of literature: Clearing the damp-heat with strengthening healthy qi. These findings might guide the clinicians in treatment of obesity.