西医疾病的辨证分型是中西结合研究中的一个基础性难题，以往的辨证分型方案主要是基于专家经验建立的，由于缺乏客观依据，难以形统一的、被广泛承认的标准。本文探讨怎样通过隐结构分析为辨证分型提供客观依据，从而改变这种不理想的状况。

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and western medicine (WM) are usually integrated in healthcare in China. Patients diagnosed as suffering from a WM disease are further divided into subgroups from the TCM perspective in a process known as syndrome differentiation. Then different TCM treatments are applied accordingly. Syndrome differentiation is a fundamental aspect in TCM research. It is also a difficult problem due to the lack of objective evidence. In this paper, we explain how objective evidence for syndrome differentiation can be obtained using a new data analysis tool known as latent structure analysis.

香港研究资助局项目（622408）：有监督与无监督隐结构挖掘的统一框架，负责人：张连文；国家重点基础研究发展计划“973计划”（2011CB505101, 2011CB505102）：基于“肝藏血主疏泄”的脏象理论研究，负责人：王庆国。