TCM Cohort for Elderly CAP

A Prospective Traditional Chinese Medicine Cohort Study of Community-acquired Pneumonia in the Elderly

This study evaluates the real-world clinical efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in elderly Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) patients and explores syndrome characteristics and their associations with biomarkers.

This prospective cohort study, with TCM as the exposure, will enroll 2,234 elderly CAP patients for a 12-week follow-up. The primary evaluation uses the 90-day all-cause readmission rate as the outcome to evaluate the clinical efficacy of TCM. In addition, the study will investigate the characteristics of TCM syndromes.

Based on the cohort, we will collect peripheral blood, exhaled breath condensate, sputum, and tongue coating samples from 200 elderly CAP patients with four typical TCM syndromes, 200 non-elderly CAP patients with corresponding syndromes, and 50 healthy volunteers. Multi-omics approaches will be used to identify TCM syndrome-related biomarkers.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients diagnosed with CAP;
• Age ≥ 60 years old;
• Voluntary participation in this study, and sign the informed consent form.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients with various mental illnesses or other conditions that prevent normal communication;
• Patients with a history of pulmonary surgery, such as lung volume reduction surgery or lung transplantation;
• Patients with confirmed human immunodeficiency virus infection or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.