Clinical trial NCT01335282: Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndrome Identification in Paediatric Neurology
Official title: Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndrome Identification in Paediatric Neurology
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Conditions: Other Diagnoses and Conditions
Lead sponsor: The University of Hong Kong
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong
First posted: 2011-04-14
Enrollment: 100
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 1
Maximum age (years): 18
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: From Primary care clinic

Brief summary: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has a history of more than two millenniums. It has been a common practice in China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea and is becoming increasingly popular worldwide in recent decades However, there is no general consensus for treatment of many diseases among TCM practitioners. In some specialties, such as neurology, there is not enough well documented case reports for practitioners to make reference with. Different practitioners may give different opinions according to their own experience and patients often feel frustrated about that.

Therefore, it is worth recording cases of neurological diseases, with accurate western medicine diagnosis and TCM theory explained. Possible TCM treatments can be suggested accordingly. Being an academic research supervised by western medicine doctor, this study can help to suggest more objective opinion with least conflict of interest.

Detailed description: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has a history of more than two millenniums. It has been a common practice in China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea. In recent decades, it is becoming increasingly popular worldwide(Victor S. Sierpina 2005). Studies in Hong Kong, showed that TCM is quite common among children in Hong Kong, with about a quarter of children consulting a pediatrician are concurrently using Chinese Medicine.(Lee 2006; Li 2006).

However, there is a lack of standardized protocol for treatment of many diseases among TCM practitioners. In some specialties, such as neurology, there is not enough well documented case reports for TCM practitioners to make reference. Different TCM practitioners may give different opinions according to their own experience and patients often feel frustrated about that.

Therefore, it is worth recording cases of neurological diseases, with accurate western medicine diagnosis and TCM theory explained. Possible TCM treatments can be suggested accordingly. Being an academic research supervised by western medicine doctor, this study can help to suggest more objective opinion with least conflict of interest.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Patients receiving medical care in the Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine in Queen Mary Hospital or the Duchess of Kent Children's Hospital, and
* Patients (or their care takers) who are able to provide accurate information about their signs and symptoms

Exclusion Criteria:

* Patients (or their care takers) who are unable to report a reliable medical history

Primary outcomes:
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Hong Kong
country: China
facility: Queen Mary Hospital
Study officials:
affiliation: The University of Hong Kong
name: Virginia CN Wong, Professor
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: