Pulse assessment as an auxiliary tool to predict the severity of chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression: An observational study in patients with breast cancer
Description
Abstract: Introduction: Bone marrow suppression is a common side effect after chemotherapy and may lead to failure of cancer treatment. However, there is currently no effective assessment tool to predict the severity of myelosuppression for early intervention. Methods: 35 patients were enrolled in this study. The assessment of radial pressure pulse (RPP) was performed before and after chemotherapy. The correlation between the spectral energy (SE0–10 Hz, SE10–50 Hz, and SE13–50 Hz) of the RPP at six diagnosis positions and the blood cell counts before and after chemotherapy were analyzed. Results: Data analysis found that patients with a higher pre-chemotherapy neutrophilic ratio before chemotherapy correlated with higher spectral energy of the right Chun, right Chi, and left Chi. After chemotherapy, the WBC counts was negatively correlated with the right Chi at 0–10 Hz and 13–50 Hz, and the absolute neutrophil count (ANC) was negatively correlated with the right Chi at 0–10 Hz, 10-50Hz and 13–50 Hz. Conclusions: The major finding of this study is that the spectral energy of the right Chi correlated with the severity of post-chemotherapy neutropenia, validating the TCM theory that the right Chi pulse corresponds to the relationship of “Kidney yang and essence” and the bone marrow. It was also found through this study that the pre-chemotherapy WBC segment percentage positively correlated with spectral energy of the right Chun, left Chi and Right Chi pulse position, indicating a correlation between the immune system and Defense Qi theory in TCM. This study was registered as a clinical trial: ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT05442177.