Pulmonary qi asthenia syndrome refers to asthenia syndrome due to insufficiency of pulmonary qi and hypofunction of the lung in governing qi and weakness of weiqi to protect the superficies. This syndrome is caused by chronic disease with cough and consumption of pulmonary qi; or by insufficiency of essence and tonification of the lung due to spleen asthenia that fails to transform food.

Clinical manifestations:
Weak cough, shortness of breath with aggravation after movement, cough with thin sputum, low and timid voice, spiritual lassitude, pale complexion, spontaneous sweating, aversion to wind, susceptibility to invasion of exogenous pathogenic factors and weak pulse. These symptoms are usually seen in chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary emphysema, insufficiency of lung (compensatory stage) due to chronic and pulmonary heart disease, remission stage of bronchial asthma, rehabilitative stage of pneumonia and?influenza and various diseases due to hypofunction of immunity.

Analysis of symptoms:
Weak cough and asthma are due to asthenia of pulmonary qi, upper adverse flow of qi and failure of dispersion and descent; aggravation of cough and asthma after movement is due to consumption of qi; expectoration of thin and clear sputum is due to failure of the lung to distribute fluid due to asthenia and accumulate fluid into phlegm which is brought upwards with the adverse flow of qi; shortness of breath, low and timid voice are due to insufficiency of thoracic qi due to lung asthenia; spontaneous sweating, aversion to wind and susceptibility to invasion of exogenous pathogenic factors are due to asthenia of pulmonary qi and weakness of weiqi to protect the superficies; dispiritedness and lassitude, pale complexion, light-colored tongue with whitish fur and weak pulse are signs of functional decline due to qi asthenia.

Key points for syndrome differentiation:
Weak cough, expectoration with thin and clear sputum and functional decline due to qi asthenia.