In clinical

allergic rhinitis and asthma often exist simultaneously. The World Allergy Organization (WAO) has formally proposed the new medical diagnostic term combined allergic rhinitis and asthma syndrome(CARAS)

which is considered as a whole to treat the upper and lower respiratory tract diseases for combined diagnosis and combined treatment. CARAS is mainly manifested with simultaneous occurrences of clinical or sub clinical symptoms of chronic inflammation in the upper and lower respiratory tract and highly reactive symptoms

including nasal itching

sneezing

runny nose

nasal congestion

cough and wheezing. These symptoms can suddenly attack

but also can relieve spontaneously or quickly disappear after treatment. There is no corresponding name of CARAS in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Allergic rhinitis and asthma can be respectively classified into the category of "sniveling nose" and "asthma syndrome" in TCM. In recent years

the TCM research on CARAS has gradually increased

but it is still in the initial stage and has not yet formed a complete syndrome differentiation and treatment system. This paper has summarized the research status of adult CARAS in western medicine and reviewed the research progress of TCM treatment from the pathogenesis

syndrome distribution

clinical treatment

and TCM mechanism of action

indicating that rich experience has been accumulated in TCM treatment

with certain advantages in clinical efficacy

but there is still a lack of systemic research on CARAS. The paper has also put forward the problems of TCM treatment in the syndrome research

clinical research and basic research

which would provide new research ideas for the TCM treatment of adult CARAS.