The number of patients with indefinite complaints visiting acupunctural clinics have shown a steady increase in the past few years. A complicated social environment such as ours cause various stress related disorders. We describe in this report a patient with indefinite complaints who was treated by acupuncture. The patient was treated by two different modalities of acupunctural therapy. One was the Honji technique, which consisted of treatments based on signs and symptoms as described in Chinese medicine (shoh). The other consisted of Taikyoku therapy (basic meridian points for total body adjustment according to the Kurono style). Symptoms were ameliorated after these treatments. The “chart for indefinite complaints” formulated by the Indefinite Complaints Research Committee of the Japanese Acupuncture Society was used for objective assessment of the therapeutic results. Quantitative analysis of our findings showed that acupunctural treatment is effective in treating indefinite complaints. The “chart for indefinite complaints” indicated alterations in the “neurosis” and “depression” items in our patient.

In this modern society filled with various stresses, patients with indefinite complaints have been increasing. We performed acupuncture in a patient with indefinite complaints. This patient began to complain of various indefinite symptoms in July, 1991 (at the age of 20 years), and was admitted to S Hospital due to hallucination in October, but persistently complained of indefinite symptoms after discharge. For objective evaluation of the effectiveness of acupuncture, we used the Health Check Table established by the Reserch Committee on Indefinite Complains, Japanese Acupuncture Society. After acupuncture, depressive complains decreased compared with the other stratified items. This was because of marked improvement in two depressive items, i. e the presence of heavy headedness or headache and the presence of eyestrain. These findings in our patient suggested the usefulness of stratification in the health check table and the effectiveness of acupuncture for the stratified items.
Further studies are needed in the process of improvement in depressive complaints in additional cases.

Dietary habits in Japan have become more westernized in recent years. An increasing number of people are developing colorectal cancer, which may be considered a lifestyle disease. Moreover, many people develop post-operative problems following surgery for colorectal cancer. We present a patient who complained of excessive bowel movements and various nonspecific complaints after surgery for colorectal cancer. We performed acupuncture treatments, and in order to objectively examine changes in symptoms as well as to document the usefulness of acupuncture treatment, we used a health chart produced by the Nonspecific Symptoms Team, Research Department of the Japan Society of Acupuncture and Moxibustion. We performed tanshijutsu (treatment in which the practitioner continues holding the needle from insertion until removal), which included zuishou (therapy based on the symptoms), taikyoku (basic meridian points for total body adjustment according to the Kurono style), and topical therapies using 30mm 18-gauge needles. In total, 14 treatments were administered. The results objectively demonstrated the usefulness of acupuncture in treating the patient's postsurgical nonspecific complaints. Moreover, the acupuncture treatments were also effective in improving the patient's bowel problems. These findings suggest that acupuncture may be a useful method of postoperative care.

[Objective] For objective investigation of symptomatic changes in indefinite complaints accompanying Wallenberg syndrome, efficacy of acupuncture treatment was investigated following seven acupuncture treatments using charts on indefinite complaints developed by Yasuzo Kurono, the chief of the Indefinite Complaint Section in the Japan Society of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Research Committee.
[Design] A case report providing descriptive research
[Methods] Single acupuncture was administered by zuishou therapy (therapy based on the symptoms), taikyoku therapy (basic meridian points for total body adjustment according to the Kurono style) and topical therapy, using 30-mm 16-guage needles. The charts on indefinite complaints were used for assessment, and the treatment period was 52-days, from May 20 to July 10, 2003 (seven times).
[Results] Improvement of the indefinite complaints was observed, and effect assessment using the charts on indefinite complaints showed marked improvement. Improvement of symptoms associating Wallenberg syndrome was also observed.
[Conclusions] Efficacy of acupuncture treatment for the indefinite complaints accompanying Wallenberg syndrome was suggested by the improvement of symptoms associated with Wallenberg syndrome. The patient subsequently returned to work, indicated the potential of acupuncture treatment as QOL.

At the Ambulatory Clinic for Collagen Disease and Rheumatism, the Second Department of Internal Medicine, Nagoya City University Hospital, acupuncture was performed on 8 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome who satisfied all of the following requirements: (1) cases which satisfied the diagnostic criteria established by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), USA and the Ministry of Health and Welfare Study Group, Japan; (2) cases which could be followed for long periods, (3) patients who gave informed consent to acupuncture, and (4) cases which were resistant to conventional drug therapies. Severe fatigue, which is the major symptom of this syndrome, was reduced markedly by acupuncture. Accompanying physical symptoms were also reduced in some cases. Immunologically, the percentages of gamma- and delta-T cells in peripheral blood, which had been lower than normal before treatment, improved significantly after acupuncture.
These results suggest that acupuncture provides a useful means of treating chronic fatigue syndrome which has conventionally been treated using drugs alone.

With the aim of investigating the effect of drop in blood pressure of the Zusanli (ST36), a multi-center randomized controlled trial was conducted with the envelope method. Patients showing the high blood pressure condition were divided into 2 of the group treated with use of the Zusanli point and the group with non-use of Zusanli point.Changes in blood pressure were then measured.The present results show no significant difference was seen between the 2 groups, thus did not find the Zusanli point to be effective.

Research on pulse diagnosis conducted so far by Kurono et al. includes a study on pulse diagnosis and six basic pulses and a study on the application of AMI (an apparatus for measuring the function of the meridian and corresponding internal organs) to pulse diagnosis.
In this study, fluctuation of the meridian functions with or without acupuncture treatment according to the law of the five elements were examined objectively using BP values measured by AMI. When BP values were measured for 10 times without acupuncture treatment, the values for the respective meridiansfluctuated in a stable manner, averaging 4% or less. As a result of testing 6 subjects using this meridian treatment according to the law of the five elements, fluctuation of the meridian functions increased in the oriental medical diagnosis of all the subjects.
Thus, the results of this study showed the feasibility of using AMI for objectively evaluating the fluctuation of meridian functions. The authors intend to continue to examine the relationship between diagnosis and acupuncture using AMI.

[Objective] We performed a multi-center randomized controlled trial using sham acupuncture as a control in the 11 institutions of Aichi and Shizuoka prefecture at which we practice our original acupuncture method.
[Design · Methods] Patients were randomly allocated to four groups : A group, “Taikyoku-Ryoho” (whole body acupuncture method) pole treatment combined with low frequency electroacupuncture; B group, “TaikyokuRyoho” pole treatment; C group, low frequency electroacupuncture; D group, sham acupuncture. Therapeutic effectiveness was evaluated using a visual analogue scale (VAS) and criteria of the Japanese Orthopedic Association for low back pain (JOA score). After these evaluations, patients in B group received low frequency electroacupuncture and patients in C group received “Taikyoku-Ryoho” pole treatment. Patients in D group received both therapies. Thus, all patients eventually received the entire series of therapies. [Results] Significant improvement (P<0.05) in VAS and JOA scores was recognized after one acupuncture treatment in A, B and C groups, but not in D group. There were no differences in terms of the effectiveness among A, B and C groups.
[Conclusion] Our original acupuncture method of “Taikyoku-Ryoho” combined with low frequency electroacupuncture was superior to sham acupuncture. However, the definition of sham acupuncture needs to be more clearly defined in future research.