Clinical trial · Observational
Incremental Value of Traditional Chinese Medicine Features in Two-Stage Pre-Endoscopic Prediction
Incremental Value of a Traditional Chinese Medicine-Integrated Versus Western-Only Strategy for Two-Stage Pre-Endoscopic Prediction of Colorectal Inflammatory Conditions: A Multicenter Diagnostic Model Development and External Validation Study
- Source
- ClinicalTrials.gov
- Retrieved
- Sep 8, 2026
- Layer
- normalized (units and labels harmonized; values unchanged)
- Run
- ING-CLINICALTRIALS-20260908-000001
Summary
Brief summary (as posted)
This observational study evaluates whether adding Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)-related clinical features improves the performance of machine-learning models that estimate disease risk before colonoscopy. We compare two modeling strategies that use the same sequential (two-stage) framework: Western-only models, based on demographic, clinical, and laboratory information commonly used in Western medicine. TCM-integrated models, which use the same types of Western information plus structured TCM features. Stage 1 aims to distinguish people more likely to have functional bowel problems from those more likely to have inflammatory or neoplastic colorectal disease. Stage 2 focuses on people in the higher-risk pathway and aims to distinguish ulcerative colitis from other inflammatory or neoplastic conditions. Models are developed in one dataset and tested in independent external data from other centers. We assess discrimination (including AUC), clinical usefulness with decision-curve analysis, and which TCM features contribute most in the integrated models. This study does not assign treatments. It analyzes existing clinical information to support future pre-endoscopic triage research. Results will not replace colonoscopy or clinician judgment.
Conditions
Conditions (4)
Free-text conditions as registered, with the CancerIndex entity they were reconciled to and the match type.
| Condition (as posted) | Mapped entity | Match | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colorectal Neoplasms | Colorectal Neoplasm | ONTOLOGY_EXACT | 0.98 |
| Crohn Disease (CD) | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
| Inflammatory Bowel Diseases | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
| Ulcerative Colitis (Disorder) | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
Interventions
Interventions (0)
Data not yet available
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (0)
[]Primary outcomes (1)
- measure
- Difference in External-Validation AUC (ΔAUC) Between TCM-Integrated and Western-Only Two-Stage Pre-Endoscopic Prediction Models
- timeFrame
- Baseline (index visit; all pre-endoscopic assessments within 1 day)
- description
- The primary outcome is the difference in area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ΔAUC = AUC\_TCM-integrated - AUC\_Western-only) for matched machine-learning algorithms assessed in independent external validation. ΔAUC is reported for the two sequential prediction stages: Stage 1 (functional-predominant versus inflammatory-neoplastic pathway) and Stage 2 (ulcerative colitis versus other inflammatory or neoplastic conditions). Higher ΔAUC indicates greater incremental discriminative value of the TCM-integrated strategy.
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- All
- Minimum age
- 18 Years
- Maximum age
- 85 Years
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion Criteria: Adults aged 18 years or older Patients evaluated in participating centers with clinical records suitable for pre-endoscopic risk assessment related to colorectal inflammatory or functional bowel conditions Underwent colonoscopy (or had a colonoscopy-confirmed final diagnosis) allowing assignment to the study diagnostic labels used in the two-stage framework Stage 1-eligible diagnoses classifiable as either a functional-predominant pathway (e.g., irritable bowel syndrome / related functional presentations as defined in the protocol) or an inflammatory-neoplastic pathway (ulcerative colitis, Crohn disease, indeterminate colitis, or colorectal neoplasia as defined in the protocol) For Stage 2 analyses: patients within the inflammatory-neoplastic pathway classifiable as ulcerative colitis versus other inflammatory or neoplastic conditions (Crohn disease, indeterminate colitis, or colorectal neoplasia) Availability of required Western clinical and laboratory predictors for model development or validation For TCM-integrated analyses: availability of protocol-defined structured Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) features Ability to assign the record to the development cohort or an independent external-validation cohort according to the protocol center rules Exclusion Criteria: Age younger than 18 years Missing or unverifiable final diagnostic label required for Stage 1 and/or Stage 2 Missing key predictors required by the Western-only and/or TCM-integrated modeling pipelines (per protocol variable lists) Diagnosis outside the predefined Stage 1 / Stage 2 label sets and not mappable under protocol rules Duplicate or overlapping records for the same patient encounter after de-duplication Records excluded by pre-specified data-quality or center-specific protocol rules (e.g., incomplete critical clinical documentation)
References
Publications (0)
Data not yet available