Incorporation of traditional Chinese medicine pattern diagnosis in the management of rheumatoid arthritis

Introduction: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been continuously developing over thousand years of practice and refined through observations. TCM pattern diagnosis plays an important role in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment and recovery. Methods: This paper provides a comprehensive review of literature and subsequent case study related to the historical evolution on the integration of the TCM pattern and RA disease diagnosis in biomedicine, the methodology of pattern diagnosis for RA, and the biological basis of TCM pattern. Results: TCM pattern is used to classify the patient in the practice of RA treatment, and has been recently incorporated with biomedical diagnosis, resulting in the increasing research interest of TCM pattern among various disciplines of integrative medicine. Conclusion: It is conceivable that incorporation of TCM pattern diagnosis in the management of RA provides better ways to improve efficacy and could yield new insights into the biological sciences.