OBJECTIVE: To summarize and clarify the rules of prescriptions and medicines for the treatment of pulmonary nodules by traditional Chinese medicine based on data mining

so as to provide reference for the clinical treatment of pulmonary nodules. METHODS: Traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions for pulmonary nodules treated by chief physician Ma Zhanping in the outpatient department of Shaanxi Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine from Jan. 2019 to Mar. 2021 were collected

and Excel software was used to establish the database after screening.Association rules of IBM SPSS Modeler 18. 0 software were used to analyze the drug combination of common drugs

and Cytoscape software was used to draw common drug network link diagram. IBM SPSS Statistics 25 software was used to perform cluster analysis of 30 categories of traditional Chinese medicine with high frequency

and the tree graph was drawn. RESULTS: A total of 168 first-diagnostic prescriptions were screened

including 147 categories

and the total frequency reached 2 558 times. Commonly used drugs included bupleurum

codonopsis pilosula

bitter almond

perilla leaves and acanthum saponiana thorn. Commonly used traditional Chinese medicines included deficient-tonifying drugs

phlegm-reducing and antitussive drugs

antiphlegm-antitussive drugs and Qi-regulating drugs. The most core drug was bupleurum-codonopsis pilosula-astragalus membranaceus-atractylodonis-cohema-tangerine peel. Six cluster groups were obtained by cluster analysis. CONCLUSIONS: The formation of pulmonary nodules is closely related to the poor operation of internal Qi. Due to the “stagnation”

it is necessary to restore the flow of internal Qi in clinical treatment.The methods of regulating Qi and relieving stagnation

invigorating Qi and clearing phlegm

and promoting blood circulation and resolving phlegm are used to make Qi smooth and accumulate dispersion.