A Study on the East-West Medicine Clinical Aspect of Climacteric Women Focusing on Hot Flush

안면홍조를 중심으로 한 갱년기 여성의 동서의학적 임상양상 연구

Objectives: We intended to identify factors related to the severity of hot flush of climacteric women from an East-West medical point of view. Methods: We surveyed 446 climacteric women who had received Korean oriental medical questionnaires about clinical symptom patterns and health medical examinations at Kyung-Hee University Medical Center over 1 year, from June 2007 to May 2008. Then, we compared hot flush with clinical symptom pattern and health medical examination result. Results: As the severity of hot flush increased, hypnagogic disorder in sleep pattern, abdominal gaseous distention in digestion pattern, tenesmus in evacuation pattern, yellow or reddish urine in voiding pattern, spontaneous sweating in sweating pattern, chest oppression in psychologic pattern, not-pulling-bedclothes in cold-heat pattern and mouth dryness in craniocervical symptom increased (p<0.05). In relation to digestion pattern, the severity of hot flush showed statistical significance according to prevalence of gastritis diagnosed by gastroscopy and upper GI series(p<0.01). In relation to voiding pattern, the severity of hot flush showed statistical significance according to prevalence of urine protein diagnosed by urinalysis (p<0.05). In relation to sweating, psychologic & cold-heat pattern, triiodothyronine (T3) increase and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) decrease were significantly correlated as the severity of hot flush increased (p<0.01). Conclusions: The result showed that hot flush of climacteric women had to be considered in respect of digestion disorder related to gastritis and sweating psychologic cold-heat disorder related to thyroid hormone.