It is known that Kiutsu state (obstruction of qi) is frequently observed in bronchial asthma. We found that Oketsu (blood stagnation) state is also observed in such patients. In the present study, we analyzed the Oketsu state in 70 asthma patients. Oketsu state was evaluated by Oketsu score (OS) by Dr. Terasawa. OS was significantly elevated in asthmatic patients, and it increased depending on the severity of the asthma. OS was no different in atopic asthma and non-atopic asthma. OS was significantly high in oral steroid treated patients. However, when the object is restricted only in the moderate state, OS was no different between the steroid treated group and the non-steroid treated group. From these results, we conclude that the Oketsu state is deeply interacted with asthma and that low dose oral steroid administration does not seem to worsen the Oketsu state in patients with asthma. We should follow the OS before and after the administration of steroids to test this hypothesis. We will investigate it in the near future.

The authors investigated the efficacy, safety and usefulness of the Kampo extract Shoseiryu-to (TJ-19) in the treatment of adult bronchial asthma. The multi-center study used the same methods presently in use in Japan for clinical evaluation of Western drugs and included a total of 69 patients in an open trial.
After long-term (4-8 weeks) administration of the Kampo formula in conjunction with conventional bronchial dilators, a significant improvement was seen in the frequency score, clinical score and asthma score. Significant improvement was observed in individual symptoms such as phlegm viscosity and amount, daily life, sleep, sneezing and nasal discharge. Overall, the results indicated marked improvement in 13 patients (18.8%), moderate improvement in 23 patients (33.3%) and slight improvement in 19 patients (27.5%). Thus, the authors obtained the favorable results of moderate or better improvement in 52.2% and slight or better improvement in 79.9% of the patients. We observed almost no abnormal findings in laboratory examinations due to the drugs. Side effects developed only in a few patients in the form of a slight cough. Symptoms of nasal allergy improved most frequently according to the impressions of the physicians in charge. Recently, combination therapy using various Kampo extracts has increased in Japan in order to improve treatment quality.