The Pattern Element Scale: A Brief Tool of Traditional Medical Subtyping for Dementia

Background. Syndromes are defined by traditional Chinese medicine as consisting of different pattern elements. Few scales have been designed for differentiating pattern elements of dementia and have shown major flaws. Thus, a new pattern element scale (PES) was developed. This study aimed to evaluate the utility of the PES in dementia patients.Methods. A total of 171 dementia patients were enrolled, and their pattern elements were ascertained, first by clinicians using the PES, then compared with results by two experts to be used as a standard criterion independently. Reliability of the subscales of the PES was assessed by receiver operator characteristic curves. Correlations between the subscales of the PES and cognition were calculated by canonical correlation analysis.Results. The PES consisted of 11 pattern element subscales. The area under the curves of all subscales was 0.7 or above. Phlegm muddiness, blood stasis, and yang hyperactivity subscales showed optimal sensitivity and specificity in discriminating pattern elements. Other subscales showed relatively lower sensitivity but higher specificity. Memory and language were significantly correlated toqideficiency and the blood stasis pattern element.Conclusion. The PES can accurately and easily discriminate pattern elements and is a helpful tool for traditional medical subtyping of dementia.

Pre-school children’s understanding of Mathematical patterns

This study explored the patterning abilities of eight children between the ages of four and five-and-a-half. Task-based interviews were conducted where children were required to produce their own repeat pattern, to copy and extend a given repeat pattern, and complete missing parts of a repeat pattern. The findings show that most children were able to copy and extend a pattern, but few could produce their own repeat pattern. While most children tended to focus on “what comes next”, some children paid attention to pattern structure, but were not able to isolate the pattern element.