Abstract
Objectives: Patients with dementia are increasing in Korea. So the importance of accurate diagnosis and treatment of dementia is growing. In this paper, we evaluated the result of employing the Korean medical diagnostic pattern as a tool in clinics. Methods: Patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease were evaluated using the Korean medical diagnostic pattern tool. Results: The number of patients with liver-kidney yin deficiency pattern/syndrome was 35. Analyzing the ratio difference between the 'liver-kidney yin deficiency' group and the 'not liver-kidney yin deficiency' group revealed that the ratio of the responses to the fourth question was less than zero. The ratio of the responses to the fifth, seventh, and eight questions were all less than 10%. The ratio of the responses to the first and second questions were greater than 30%. Conclusions: Of the six diagnostic patterns, liver-kidney yin deficiency was the greatest in the study subjects. The fourth question in the liver-kidney yin deficiency tool tests for the lack of appropriateness whereas the fifth, seventh, and eight questions test for lack of discrimination. Applying more weight to the first and second questions was an excellent choice to increase the discrimination.
