数据挖掘可以从海量数据中抽取有用的信息，本文用数据挖掘方法对类风湿关节炎与糖尿病“同证”的科学基础进行探索。首先，从中国生物医学文献数据库中下载中医药治疗类风湿性关节炎及糖尿病的相关数据，保存于Access 数据库中，然后导入SQL Server 对数据进行进一步处理并得到挖掘结果。针对得到的结果，用Cytoscape 软件对结果进行可视化处理，进而得到中医治疗类风湿性关节炎及糖尿病的用药规律网络图。从图中可以发现，黄芪、桂枝、当归、川芎、防己等为中药治疗类风湿性关节炎常用核心药物。黄芪、当归、丹参、川芎、麦冬、山药、玄参等为中药治疗糖尿病常用的核心药物。同时发现中药治疗两病共同的核心用药：黄芪、当归。中医在治疗类风湿性关节炎及糖尿病时，均采用补气活血化瘀的治疗方法。因此，根据数据挖掘的结果，可以证明两种疾病存在共同的证候特点是有科学基础的。

One important terminology in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is called treating different diseases with the same therapy. In TCM practice, some patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and some other patients with Diabetes Mellitus (DM) can be treated with similar therapies. This suggests us that there should be networks of Chinese herbal medicines commonly existed in the literature on both RA and CHD. In this paper, we propose a data mining algorithm to retrieve simple and meaningful networks of Chinese herbal medicines used in treating both RA and DM. When the networks are built, we analyzed them in the theory of TCM, i.e., Chinese herbal medicines of Huang Qi (Radix Astragali), Gui Zhi (Ramulus Cinnamomi), Dang Gui (Radix Angelicae Sinensis), Chuan Xiong (Rhizoma Chuanxiong), Mai Dong (Tuber Ophiopogonis), Shan Yao (Radix Dioscoreae) and Xuan Shen (Radix Scrophulariae) are commonly used in treating both RA and DM. What's more, Huang Qi (Radix Astragali) and Dang Gui (Radix Angelicae Sinensis) are core association. They function as buqi (tonify qi), huoxue (blood-activating), and huayu (stasis-resolving).

科学技术部“十一五”国家科技支撑计划项目（2006BAI04A10）：基于二次临床研究的中医药治疗类风湿性关节炎的临床评价，负责人：吕爱平；国家科学技术部创新方法学专项项目（2008IM020900）：中医药科学方法研究———中医药科学方法总论研究，负责人：吕爱平；国家自然科学基金项目(81072982)：隶属度和胡模拟数学方法在类风湿关节炎分类中的应用基础研究，负责人：郑光。