Traditional & Alternative Medicine

Background: Th ere is, obviously, a growing interest in the concept of “frailty” in various areas of medicine. Gait speed is a key component of evaluating frailty. Th e Timed “Up and Go” Test (TUG) is a commonly used measure of functional mobility in the elderly. Meanwhile, optimal design of noninvasive evaluations for diastolic heart failure (HF) remains limited due to the defi ciency of simple clinical criteria. Furthermore, numerical scoring systems to evaluate patients’ physical conditions have been induced in Kampo-medicine (Japanese Traditional Medicine). Suitai (water stagnation)-score and Qi (vital energy)-defi ciency (QD)-score are one of so-called Kampo-scores. Objectives: Th is study aimed to examine the correlation between the TUG, Kampo-scores, and the indices with echocardiography in hemodialysis outpatients with chronic HF. Methods: We studied 46 outpatients at the hemodyalysis unit with simultaneous Kampo-scores, the TUG, cardiographical indices with Doppler. Th e TUG score is the seconds it takes to complete the assignment (a patient stands, walks 3 m, turns, and returns and sits down). We estimated the Kampo-scores with questionnaire and physical examination. We also measured and compared Kamposcores, the TUG and echo-cardiographical indices by linear regression. Results: Some of the Kampo-scores (Suitai-score and QD-score) had positive correlation to the TUG [r=0.68, p<0.003, r=0.65, p<0.04,]. E/e’ had positive correlation to the TUG [r=0.70, p<0.00001]. Suitai-score had positive correlation to E/e’ [r=0.75, p<0.001]. Conclusions: Our data suggest that Kampo-scores, which are simple, non-invasive and cost-eff ective clinical assessments, especially Suitai-score and QD-score, can be used to defi ne clinical evaluation of frailty in hemodialysis outpatients with chronic HF.