Objective To analyze the academic character and medication rules of Professor Yanqin Zou in treating immunoglobulin A (IgA) nephrology.Methods Using Chinese medicine heritage platform software

we collected and analyzed 76 IgA nephrology cases treated by Prof.Zou.Frequency statistics were used for single-agent drugs

and association rule was used to analyze pharmaceutic rules.Core drug combinations were extracted based on complex system entropy clustering and candidate new prescriptions were obtained based on unsupervised entropy hierarchical clustering.Results Among the 76 prescriptions

a total of 123 drugs were used

13 of which were used more than 40 times.Huangqi (Radix Astragali)was the most frequently used medicinal

with its frequency up to 70 times.The frequently-used medicinals were mainly cold in nature

614 times in total.Among the frequently-used medicinals

sweet flavor is the most commonly used herb flavour

with a total of 1 054 times.Medicinals attributive to the Liver Meridian were the most frequent

up to 853 times.According to association rule data mining method

8 groups with higher correlation coefficient were “Gancao (Radix et Rhizoma Glycyrrhizae) plus Huangqi(Radix Astragali)”

“Fulin(Poria)→Huangqi(Radix Astragali)”

“Yiyiren(Semen Coicis)→Huangqi(Radix Astragali)”

“Jiangchan(Bombyx Batryticatus)→Huangqi(Radix Astragali)”

“Huangqi(Radix Astragali)→Jiangchan(Bombyx Batryticatus)”

“Shiwei→Huangqi(Radix Astragali)”

“Niubangzi(Fructus Arctii)→Huangqi(Radix Astragali)” and “Huangshukuihua→Huangqi(Radix Astragali)”.Based on complex system entropy clustering

a group of 13 core drug combinations were obtained.Based on unsupervised entropy hierarchical clustering

3 new prescriptions were obtained.Professor Zou’s academic experience in treating IgA nephropathy mainly included three parts.Firstly

the location of the disease was identified

which included the lungs

spleen and kidney.Secondly

the nature of disease was analyzed

which aimed to strengthen the body resistance to eliminate pathogenic factors.Finally the course of the disease was analyzed.Activating blood circulation was used for diseases with long durations.Conclusions Through combining the data mining of medical records together with the introduction of academic characteristics

we summarized the experience of Prof.Zou in the treatment of IgA nephropathy. Abstract