• Xinqi Jiang, Hongjie Cheng, Naiwei Zhang, Shanshan Xu, Libao An, Ling Yan, Fang Niu, and Boyi Jia.
• Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
• Medicine (Baltimore). 2022 Nov 4; 101 (44): e31618e31618.

IntroductionAt present, the pathogenesis of non-erosive reflux disease (NERD) is still unclear, and proton pump inhibitors are the main treatment drug. However, the effect is limited. Traditional Chinese medicine treatment of NERD has advantages. Stagnated heat in liver and stomach syndrome is the most important traditional Chinese medicine syndrome type of this disease. Tongue diagnosis is an important basis for the diagnosis of stagnated heat in liver and stomach syndrome. The microecology of tongue coating suggests the occurrence and development of disease. The purpose of this study aims to clarify the regular changes of tongue coating microecology in stagnated heat in liver and stomach syndrome of NERD.Methods And AnalysisThis is a cross-sectional clinical trial. This study is divided into NERD stagnated heat in liver and stomach syndrome group, qi stagnation, and phlegm obstruction syndrome control group and normal control group, with 20 cases in each group. Tongue coating samples will be collected from 3 groups, and 16SrRNA gene sequencing technology will be used to detect the genome of tongue coating flora in patients with NERD with stagnated heat in liver and stomach syndrome, control group with qi stagnation and phlegm obstruction syndrome and normal control group. The main outcome measures are the distribution, diversity, and richness of the tongue flora in patients and healthy controls.DiscussionThe results of this study will clarify the internal relationship between NERD stagnated heat in liver and stomach syndrome and the microecological changes in tongue coating.Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

10 keywords...

hide…