The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of silver spike point (SSP) therapy on peripheral circulatory function in workers exposed to hand-arm vibration by analyzing the second derivative of photoplethysmogram (SDPTG). Seventy-seven male subjects including public service workers and forestry workers volunteered for the present study. After the SSP therapy on LI4 (Hege) and LI10 (Shousanli) at 1Hz for 10 minutes, the SDPTG-index was significantly increased among the subjects whose SDPTG-index was below the 50th percentile curve of the normal aging curve. The result suggests that the SSP therapy is useful in the improvement of peripheral circulatory function in workers exposed to hand-arm vibration.

Atopic dermatitis is influenced by numerous environmental factors, as well as various hereditary factors. This variety of factors makes therapy difficult, and necessitates treatment on an individual, case-by-case basis.
We report the case of a 21-year old woman with atopic dermatitis. The patient underwent acupuncture 11 times, in accordance with traditional Chinese medicine theory, in addition to her medicaments. This treatment resulted in improvement of her skin eruptions, QOL, IgE-RIST and eosinophils. This may demonstrate that concomitant use of acupuncture therapy is effective in the improvement of atopic dermatitis.

A 29 year-old female patient with excessive cold sensitivity (“hiesho”) was regularly treated with acupuncture therapy. She complained of symptoms from autumn to winter, and her symptoms were also susceptible to changes in temperature. From the oriental medical diagnosis, we found that she exhibited “oketsu” and “suitai”. The effects of acupuncture therapy were comprehensively assessed by the Oketsu score, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) thermograms, etc. We also examined the influence of temperature and menstrual periods on cold sensitivity.
After five months of this therapy (eight times), the Oketsu score and VAS showed a decrease. In addition, this therapy held to elevate the skin temperatures of extremities. It was noted that the temperarure, rather than the menstrual periods, had a stronger influence on VAS. These results were that the acupuncture therapy was effective against the cold sensitivity.

Atopic dermatitis is influenced by both environmental and hereditary factors. Many contributing factors make therapy difficult, and patients must be treated individually. We report herein the clinical effects of acupuncture treatment in combination with medicinal therapy in a patient with atopic dermatitis.
A 20-year-old male was diagnosed with atopic dermatitis in early elementary school. Topical corticosteroids improved symptoms, but these recurred at 18 years old, and treatment had since been continuous. Acupuncture treatment was mainly performed on ST36 (Zusanli, Ashi Sanli), LR3 (Taichong, Taisho), GB34 (Yanglingquan, Yoryosen), PC6 (Neiguan, Naikan) and BL20 (Pishu, Hiyu) according to traditional Chinese medical theory, once a week, for 8 sessions.
To examine the effects of treatment, an itching diary devised by Kawashima was adopted for outcome measures; visual analogue scale (VAS), state-trait anxiety inventory (STAI), counts of eosinophils (Eo) and white blood cells (WBC) in peripheral blood and serum IgE. Itching improved after 8 acupuncture treatments. In particular, finger VAS (mm) improved from 34 to 24, popliteal VAS from 22 to 9, and dorsal VAS from 67 to 31. STAI score from 49 to 33 in anxiety content. Eo (%) changed from 4.6 to 1.9, WBC (/μl) from 6,100 to 4,300 and serum IgE (IU/ml) from 72 to 70. Either blood test was a change in a standard value.
These results suggest that acupuncture treatment in combination with medicinal therapy is effective for improving atopic dermatitis.

To clarify the effects of Silver Spike Point (SSP) therapy on the autonomic nervous function, we evaluated changes in the peripheral circulatory function by second derivative photoplethysmogram (SDPTG) on 22 workers exposed to hand-arm vibration. We also examined the responses of the autonomic nervous function using the coefficient of variation of R-R interval (CV_R-R), total number of white blood cells (WBC), and the ratio of granulocyte (GC) and lymphocyte (LC) as indexes.
As a result, we observed improved peripheral circulation due to the SSP therapy, in which the average pulse rare (PR) tended to decrease, CV_R-R was not significantly changed by the therapy, and WBC and LC were significantly decreased by the therapy.
The 22 subjects were divided into two groups (low-value group, 8 subjects; high-value group, 14 subjects) according to the data of CV_R-R revised using Fujimoto's method. In the low-value group, PR tended to decrease, and SDPTG-index and c/a tended to increase. In the high-value group, on the other hand, CVR-R and LC tended to decrease and WBC significantly increased.
In conclusion, SSP therapy enhanced the parasympathetic nervous function and improved the peripheral circulatory function in the parasympathetic-nervous-function-impaired the group (low-value group). Furthermore, it suppressed the parasympathetic nervous function without affecting the peripheral circulatory function in the parasympathetic-nervous-function-enhanced group (high-value group).

Infrared thermography was performed on 38 forestry workers. The thermograms were analyzed separately for the left and right hands of each subject. Of 75 hands evaluated, vibration-induced white finger was noted in 18 (VWF group), and no symptoms were noted in 57 (non-VWF group). In addition to the above two groups, 42 subjects (84 hands) who had no symptoms of vibration exposure were used as a control group. Based of the thermograms taken after a local warming of the hands for 5min, the temperature distributions of the dorsal aspect of subject's hands were evaluated, and the thermal images of the hand with VWF were categorized into three main patterns. To establish a quantitative evaluation index that incorporates the characteristic thermal image observed in the VWF group, we constructed the representative parameters for each of the three thermogram patterns, and a linear discriminant analysis was performed using the presence or absence of VWF symptoms as the dependent variable and the constructed parameters as the independent variables. A discriminant score derived from this model expression was used as the evaluation index. The accuracy of the index was estimated according to a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, and the area under the curve of 0.942 was obtained (p<0.001). When the cutoff point was set at the maximum point in the Youden index, the sensitivity of the VWF group was 94.4%, and the specificity of the non-VWF group and control group was 84.2% and 89.3%, respectively. These findings suggest that this newly proposed quantitative analysis method, which uses the thermal distributions of the dorsal side of the hand as indicators, may be useful for evaluating peripheral circulatory impairment of HAVS.

The effects of Qi Gong health maintenance exercises were compared with a control group of walkers considered to have an equivalent amount of exercise, by measuring the changes in the pulse, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and peripheral circulation.
Although no significant differences were seen in either the pulse or blood pressure of the control group of walkers when the before and after exercise values were compared, in the Qi Gong group, a decrease in these values was seen over time, with significant decreases from the pre-exercise values indicated in all values 30 minutes after exercise. This is consistent with the findings in a previous report that there was a significant reduction in catecholamine in the Qi Gong group 30 minutes after performing Qi Gong exercises.
When the flow rate of the peripheral circulation was measured using Doppler ultrasound equipment, in comparison with the lack of notable change over time seen in the control group, a significant improvement in the peripheral circulation was suggested for the Qi Gong group when the pre- and post- exercise values were compared. It has also been suggested that Qi Gong health maintenance exercises lower stress hormones and act to improve the peripheral blood circulation; a discussion of which is also included in this paper.