Constitutional multicenter bank linked to Sasang constitutional phenotypic data

BACKGROUND Biobanks are more important in medical area because they can give researchers data for demonstrating and validating their research. In this study, we developed a biobank called the Korea Constitutional Multicenter Bank (KCMB) based on Sasang Constitutional Medicine (SCM). The aim of the KCMB was a foundation to providing the scientific basis of SCM. METHODS The KCMB has been constructed since 2006 in 24 Korean medical clinics with collection of questionnaire data, physical measurements and biological information comprised the results from blood test and DNA analyses. All participants were prescribed Sasang Constitution (SC)-specific herbal remedies for the treatment, and showed improvement of original symptoms as confirmed by Korean medicine doctor. Collected data went through de-identification process using the electronic case report form system. For calculation of several SC type specific tendencies, we used the direct standardization and Chi-square tests. RESULTS The KCMB collected clinical information from 3,711 study participants (1,353 men and 2,358 women) aged more than 10 years. The mean age (± standard deviation) was 47.1 (±16.6) and 47.7 (±15.8) years for men and women respectively. After applying the direct standardization, the estimated constitutional distributions for the SC types were as follows: 39.2% for Tae-eumin(TE), 27.1% for Soeumin(SE), 33.7% for Soyangyin(SY), and non-zero but below 0.1% for Taeyangyin(TY). The estimated distribution of TE was about 10% less, while that of SY and SE were slightly more than the distribution reported by Jema Lee established the SCM. Based on the participants' medical history within the KCMB, each SC type had notably different frequencies for some diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, stroke, and obesity (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS The KCMB may serve to verify and validate SCM theories and practices. It may also provide new insights into SCM mechanisms. The results from many studies using the KCMB data are of great importance and value for making decisions in healthcare policy and developing novel therapies.