Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine

History and Development:

The Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine (after this called "TCM") was established in about 1975, and there were three physicians then. The first director, Mingyan Liu, was a disciple of Wang Fengchun, one of Beijing's four most famous doctors at that time. Later, there were several other physicians with clinical characteristics, such as Dr. Yanbo Zhang, who was good at treating dermatological and surgical diseases, and Dr. Zilan Wu, who was good at treating respiratory system diseases. In recent years, the Department of TCM has greatly developed. In 1999, approved by Beijing Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Department of TCM became one of the first units to create a model TCM department in Beijing Comprehensive Hospital. In 2001, the Department initiated the establishment of Beijing New TCM Salon, which is responsible for organizing academic activities of TCM in Beijing, jointly with Guang'anmen Hospital and Xiyuan Hospital of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine and affiliated Dongzhimen Hospital and Dongfang Hospital, and Chinese Medicine Research Center, Peking University. In July 2002, the Youth Working Committee of Beijing Association of Chinese Medicine was established based on the Salon. The Youth Working Committee is responsible for organizing the Salon and editing the Beijing New Chinese Medicine Salon Newsletter. At the end of 2004, the Department was established by Beijing Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine as a key discipline of neurology in combination with traditional Chinese and Western medicine. Since 2008, the Department has organized and established the Multiple Sclerosis Doctor-Patient Association - MS Lily House, which has been held for 16 times and has been highly praised by MS patients. Since December 2008, the Department has been the chairman of Brain Disease Professional Committee of Beijing Association of Chinese Medicine. Beijing Tiantan Hospital is the organizer of the Beijing Institute of Integrative Chinese and Western Medicine for Brain Diseases, approved by Beijing Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and the National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Department of TCM undertakes clinical and research work related to integrative Chinese and Western medicine for neurological diseases. In 2022, the Department of TCM successfully applied to the Traditional Chinese Medicine Professional Group of the Drug Clinical Trial Institution of Beijing Tiantan Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University.

Staff Composition: The Department of TCM has a Chinese Medicine Clinic, an Acupuncture Clinic, and a Tuina Clinic. There are 21 physicians, including 4 with senior titles, 11 with associate senior titles, and 6 attending physicians, 15 of whom have doctoral degrees.

The TCM outpatient clinic specializes in the following diseases:

Neurological diseases: cerebrovascular disease, multiple sclerosis, optic neuromyelitis optica, brain tumor, traumatic brain injury, subdural hematoma, concussion, Moyamoya disease, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, motor neuron disease, dementia, amnesia, tinnitus, depression, anxiety, insomnia, headache, dizziness, cerebral atrophy, post-cranial surgery complications (e.g., eruption, fever, urination disorders, etc.)

Other diseases: cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, endocrine, urinary system diseases, gynecological diseases, rheumatism and immunity diseases, male diseases, geriatric diseases, pediatric diseases, sub-health, obesity, nodular diseases, acne, rhinitis, skin diseases, gout, constipation, allergic diseases, thyroid diseases, pain, chloasma, rheumatic bone and joint diseases, and other various common diseases and complex miscellaneous diseases.

The acupuncture clinic specializes in the following diseases:

Acupuncture for facial palsy, oculofacial spasm, dizziness, headache, insomnia, deafness, tinnitus, diplopia, myopia, amblyopia, herpes zoster, menopausal syndrome, cervical and lumbar spondylosis, sequelae of cerebrovascular disease, children's cerebral palsy, children's hyperactivity, children's allergic rhinitis, various pains, peripheral nerve injury, myofascitis, spleen and stomach diseases, respiratory system diseases, acupuncture for weight loss, etc.

Outpatient Volume:

The daily outpatient volume is about 400 times, and the annual outpatient volume is about 100,000 times.

Doctoral and Master's Degree Training Sites:

The Department of TCM is the training site for master's and doctoral students in combined traditional Chinese and Western medicine at Capital Medical University and the training site for doctoral students in internal medicine at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. It recruits clinical master's and doctoral students in TCM and combined Chinese and Western medicine. It engages in research on neurological diseases in TCM and combined Chinese and Western medicine. The department has trained 50 doctors and masters. It is responsible for the teaching and clinical practice of TCM courses in the Fifth Clinical Medical College and Dental College of Capital Medical University, and for the TCM courses of international students in the International College of Capital Medical University. In the past ten years, the Department has undertaken many national, municipal, and bureau-level scientific research projects and participated in many collaborative projects. It has won one national and one Beijing Science and Technology Progress Award.

The Department of TCM will focus on the advantages of neurology in the hospital and gradually build a department that combines medical treatment, teaching and scientific research, focusing on the comprehensive development of neurological diseases with Chinese and Western medicine. To better serve the majority of patients, the team will continue to learn new knowledge, master new technology, improve medical quality, improve service attitude, and serve patients with enthusiasm.

Features and treatment characteristics of the Department of TCM:

Brain disease is a distinctive discipline in Chinese medicine. It is essentially and practically significant to make full use of the advantageous platform of neurology in Beijing Tiantan Hospital, to explore and organize the theories and experiences of Chinese medicine in treating encephalopathy over the ages, to gradually form the advantageous discipline of combining Chinese and Western medicine in encephalopathy in Beijing Tiantan Hospital, and to continuously improve the clinical efficacy and scientific research level of combining Chinese and Western medicine in treating encephalopathy.

Study includes three aspects:

Cooperation with Neurosurgery:

Research on postoperative fever after craniocerebral surgery: Through prospective and retrospective studies on the TCM treatment of nearly 900 cases of postoperative fever after craniocerebral surgery and 231 cases of perioperative TCM symptomatology of patients in different seasons, it is proposed that the core pathogenesis of postoperative fever after craniocerebral surgery is damp-heat. The formation of damp-heat is related to preoperative liver Qi discomfort, trapped spleen, direct damage to the spleen and stomach Qi by the surgery itself, and postoperative massive rehydration and use of antibiotics, resulting in damage to the spleen Qi and deregulation of the function of transporting water and dampness, and internal stagnation of water and dampness. After surgery, the Yang meridian in the brain is damaged, and Yang Qi cannot be distributed properly, which results in heat and damp-heat. According to this pathological mechanism, the Naoreqing is formulated with obvious effect of reducing heat with evidence-effect and time-effect relationship to reduce fever. It has an antipyretic impact on both infectious and non-infectious fevers. The antipyretic effect is not related to the primary brain tumor, and the antipyretic effect may be related to improving cerebrospinal fluid routine. Different animal models of fever were made with bacterial endotoxin (ET), 2,4-dinitrophenol, endogenous pyrogen (EP), and Naoreqing had sound antipyretic effects on all three models. The mechanism of the antipyretic effect may be to inhibit the content of thermogenic cytokines in the hypothalamus, thus reducing the production and release of central febrile mediators, and to promote the synthesis and release of antipyretic substances in the ventral septum of the brain, which exert positive and negative regulation on the central temperature through these two pathways. The research was funded by the Social Development Fund of Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission, and 26 research papers were published, which won Beijing and Chinese Traditional Medicine's scientific and technological achievements awards.

Research on brain tumors: The characteristics of TCM symptoms in 400 cases of primary brain tumors were summarized, the idea of TCM evidence-based treatment of brain tumors was proposed, and a preliminary summary of clinical practice experience was made, and 10 papers were published. At present, the team are carrying out research on the clinical efficacy of TCM in treating glioma, the effect of TCM in reducing toxicity and increasing the effectiveness of chemotherapy for glioma, the regulation of blood-glioma barrier by TCM and its mechanism of anti-glioma.

Research on traumatic brain injury: To explore the TCM pathogenesis of traumatic brain injury and the mechanism of TCM treatment of hyperthermia and coma after traumatic brain injury, to continuously improve the level of TCM in reducing fever and promoting wakefulness, and to establish a standardized theoretical system of TCM diagnosis and treatment after traumatic brain injury. The team has accumulated certain experience in this field and published 4 papers. Cooperated with the neurosurgery craniocerebral trauma specialty, neuroimaging specialty, and neuropsychology specialty, the team carries out a joint concussion clinic, which has accumulated hundreds of patients with remarkable efficacy of combining Chinese and Western medicine, and currently published 1 related article.

Cooperation with Neurology:

Research on a combination of traditional Chinese and Western medicine treatment plan for acute cerebrovascular disease: The Department of Neurology is a national training center for stroke units. The Department of Neurology has set up a TCM classification and efficacy evaluation scale in the digital management system of stroke units to explore the TCM etiology, distribution of evidence types, and evolution of pathogenesis of cerebrovascular diseases through extensive sample studies. The study explored the relationship between evidence-effectiveness, time-effectiveness, and dose-effectiveness of Chinese medicine in treating cerebrovascular diseases. The research was funded by the Youth Fund of the hospital and the Beijing Key Discipline Fund of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine of Neurology, and has completed more than 700 cases in the Chinese and Western medicine group and published 16 papers.

Research on multiple sclerosis: The study focuses on the clinical efficacy and mechanism of action of combining Chinese and Western medicine in treating demyelinating diseases, accumulating nearly 4,000 cases of multiple sclerosis and optic nerve myelitis, etc. The research shows that Chinese medicine has a better effect in reducing the side effects of hormone treatment, safely withdrawing hormones, reducing nerve damage symptoms, and improving the quality of life. The research was funded by the Youth Fund of the hospital, the Capital Medical University Fund, the Beijing Science and Technology Development Fund of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Beijing Natural Science Fund, the National Natural Science Fund, and the Capital Medical Development Fund, and nearly 100 papers were published.

Research on epilepsy: With the clinical advantages of the Epilepsy Center of the hospital, the team conducted research on epilepsy TCM evidence-based research to investigate the relationship between evidence-based symptoms and factors related to the disease (including gender, age, duration of disease, seizure frequency, seizure type, location, age of onset, imaging and EEG examination, etc.). Preliminary findings: 1. Patients were more likely to be male than female, and more likely to be adolescents. 2. The TCM syndromes were more likely to be wind-phlegm internal obstruction and phlegm-fire upper disturbance. 3. The syndromes were not specific regarding gender, seizure frequency, etiology, imaging and EEG severity. 4. Spleen-deficiency and phlegm-rich syndromes were more likely to be seen in children and adolescents, and more likely in full-blown seizures; liver-kidney-yin deficiency syndromes were more likely to be seen in middle-aged and elderly people, and more likely to be seen in partial seizures. 5. The duration of the disease is long, with deficiency or mixed deficiency and excessive syndromes; the duration of the disease is short, with excessive syndromes. The duration of the disease is shorter in the case of phlegm and fire disturbance, longer in the case of heart and spleen deficiency and liver and kidney yin deficiency. 6. The onset of the disease is more common in children with deficiency syndromes or mixed deficiency and excessive syndromes, in youth and middle age with more excessive syndromes. 7. The discharge site is located in the temporal lobe with wind and phlegm internal obstruction, in the frontal lobe with phlegm and fire disturbance, and full discharge with spleen deficiency and phlegm. The study was funded by the Youth Fund of the Academy and the Beijing Key Discipline Fund of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine of Neurology, and seven papers were published.

In collaboration with the Institute of Neuroimaging and the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences:

The team conducted a study on the functional brain imaging of acupuncture and analgesia by taking advantage of the NMR and magnetoencephalography equipment of the Institute. The team studied the characteristics of brain signal distribution after acupuncture and moxibustion stimulation of the Zusanli point, and the analgesic effect of acupuncture at the Taichong point in the hot water burn pain model of the finger. The research was listed as a major project of the Beijing Science and Technology Development Fund for Chinese Medicine and a key project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (second in charge of the project). The team has co-authored several papers at international conferences. In cooperation with internal and external institutions, the team has declared "Needle-assisted anesthesia for craniotomy" as a national 973 basic research project, which was established in 2007 and is currently in progress. In cooperation with the Chinese Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the team participated in the national 863 research project.

Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine History and Development: The Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine (after this called "TCM") was established in about 1975, and there were three physicians then. The first director, Mingyan Liu, was a disciple of Wang Fengchun, one of Beijing's four most famous doctors at that time. Later, there were several other physicians with clinical charact…