Objective: To investigate the pathological and clinical discrepancy and clinic-pathology correlation of different traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) constitutions and different TCM syndrome patterns among patients with membranous nephropathy. Method: A cross-sectional study was used to collect the clinical data and analyze the correlation among TCM syndrome patterns

constitutions

pathological stages and laboratory results of 102 patients. TCM patterns were determined by a Chinese medicine physician according to the manifestation. Patients filled out the 'TCM Constitution Classification Table' to determine the constitutions. Result: There were five TCM syndrome patterns among 102 patients with membranous nephropathy. Syndromes of Qi deficiency of lung and kidney

Qi-Yin deficiency and Yin-Yang deficiency were excluded for comparison due to the small number of cases (only 4 patients). TCM constitutions of Qi stagnation and blood stasis

endowment quality were not found in the patients. Glassock stage was used to determine the renal pathology severity. The percentage of Qi deficiency constitution was lower than that of normal constitution

and the percentage of spleen and kidney Qi deficiency type dampness constitution (including dampness-heat constitution and dampness-phlegm constitution) was highest at membranous nephropathy stage Ⅱ (P<0.05). In clinical indexes:body mass index (BMI) of spleen and kidney deficiency type dampness constitution was higher than that of other constitutions (P<0.01). Serum creatinine of spleen and kidney Qi deficiency type dampness constitution was higher than that of normal constitution

and it was lowest in spleen and kidney Qi deficiency type Qi deficiency constitution (P<0.05). Serum creatinine of spleen and kidney Yang deficiency type Yang deficiency constitution was significantly lower than that of spleen and kidney Qi deficiency type dampness constitution (P<0.05). Triglyceride of spleen and kidney Qi deficiency type dampness constitution was significantly higher than that of spleen and kidney Yang deficiency type Yang deficiency constitution (P<0.01). High density lipoproteins (HDL-C) of spleen and kidney Qi deficiency type dampness constitution was significantly lower than that of spleen and kidney Yang deficiency type Yang deficiency constitution and spleen and kidney Qi deficiency type normal constitution (P<0.05). 24 h urine protein was highest in spleen and kidney Qi deficiency type dampness constitution

followed by spleen and kidney Qi deficiency type normal constitution

spleen and kidney Qi deficiency type Qi deficiency constitution

and spleen and kidney Yang deficiency type Yang deficiency constitution (P<0.05). In immune indexes:Immunoglobulin G (IgG) of Yang deficiency constitution was higher than that of dampness constitution (P<0.05)

and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) of Yang deficiency constitution was significantly higher than that of normal constitution (P<0.01). Conclusion: Patients with disparities of TCM constitutions and syndrome patterns may have a severe clinic-pathology results

while patients with similar TCM constitutions and syndrome patterns may have an opposite result. These suggested that TCM constitutions and syndrome patterns were correlated with clinical indicators. Different constitutions may present with different clinic-pathology results even in the same TCM syndrome pattern. Therefore

prevention and treatment of different constitutions should be discriminatory even in the same TCM syndrome pattern. The combination of TCM constitution and syndrome pattern may take a role in pathology prediction

diagnosis and treatment for membranous nephropathy.