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.

We have been collecting various ideas on safer acupuncture practice from participants in our workshop as well as members of the committee. Subjects and presentations of the present workshop were as follows:
1. Forgotten needles
  1) Ideas of prevention based on a questionnaire survey (Egawa and Ishizaki)
  2) Effect of incident reporting system (Yamashita)
2. Cleaner method of needle insertion and Oshide (needle-supporting fingers)
  1) Merits and demerits of sterilized fingerstall and glove (Miyamoto)
  2) History of the clean needle development (Umeda)
  3) A novel clean acupuncture needle device (Imai and Ishizaki)
Although there was not enough time for discussion, we collected some useful ideas from the participants. A novel clean needle invented by Imai gave a strong impression to the audience. We should continue to discuss a diverse impact when such new devices and concepts become widespread in traditional acupuncture practices. We welcome more ideas and opinions from relevant facilities, clinics and fields in order to further improve safety of acupuncture.

We experienced two cases of paralysis in the facial area treated with complementary oriental medicine.
Case 1
A 68-year-oid female presented herself in the emergency department at the Iwate Medical University with a complaint of facial deformity.
She was diagnosed as left facial paralysis with ptosis and drooping of a corner of the mouth.
In our clinic, she was first treated with stellate ganglion block, steroids and antivirals.
One week later, we adopted trans-cutaneous electric stimulation therapy and 2 months later used acupuncture. All the symptoms disappeared over a 9 month period.
Case 2
A 49-year-old female was referred to Iwate Medical University Department of Oral Maxillo-facial Surgery because of her facial itching and hypesthesia.
She was diagnosed as herpes zoster and transferred to our clinic. She was treated with stellate ganglion block, trans-cutaneous electric stimulation therapy and steroids.
One month later, her symptoms were partially lessened.
Two months later, a diagnosis of peripheral trigeminal nerve paralysis of the fist, second and third divisions, was established after a complete medical examination.
After that, her paresthesia gradually changed neuralgia-like in spite of our clinical care.
Five years later, her symptoms improved to a certain extent with the use of acupuncture.
Conclusion
We conclude that oriental medicine is effective in the treatment of paralysis.

[Objective] “Morning diarrhea” is chronic diarrhea that appears only during the hours of “fifth watch of the night (_??_)” or the hours of the Tiger and the Rabbit (the period from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. and from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m.), There is, however, neither a unified definition for parthologenesis or defined concept of time relating to morning diarrhea. Accordingly, to make these clear, philological research with classic medical was performed.
[Methods] First, we made a computer search for Encyclopedias of Traditional Chinese Medicine about “morning diarrhea (_??_ and _??_)” and “kidney diarrhea (_??_ and _??_)”. Second, we examined the concept of time, pathogenesis, data of symptoms, onset time, the name for “morning diarrhea”, and Modern Western medicine.
[Results] As a result of the search there were 31 books and 37 hits for “morning diarrhea (_??_)”, 12 books and 14 hits for “morning diarrhea (_??_)”, 91 books and 216 hits for “kidney diarrhea (_??_) and 38 books and 74 hits for “kidney diarrhea (_??_)”. “Morning diarrhea” had its origin in “kidney diarrhea”, a type of kidney illness that was recognized in the mid twelfth century. Later, the pathogenesis became known, and the onset time was extended to the hour of the Rat (the period of time from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.). The pathogenesis is a kidney yang (positive deficiency) deficiency, alcoholic hepatitis, cold accumulation, food dyspepsia, liver subjugating spleen, and yang and qi (life force) deficiency, and blood stagnation.
[Conclusion] “Morning diarrhea” and “kidney diarrhea” have many points in common, however explain its difference of mainly pathological mechanism, “Morning diarrhea” results from superabundance of liver and shaoyang, fire generating during the hours of the Tiger and the Rabbit. And “kidney diarrhea” results from superabundance of kidney-yin on the hours of the Mouse (the period of the day from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.), so occur during the hours of the Mouse to the Rabbit. But there is some doubt about the relationship between the onset and pathogenesis. On the other hand in the latter half sixteenth century, emphasize the time of “fifth watch of the night”, but after that appearing time of “kidney diarrhea” had included the hours of the Boar to the Rabbit, So there is some possibility of not being main name.

The third session of the sixth Executive Committee (EC) of WFAS was held on 24 November 2006 at Sanur Paradise Hotel in Bali, Indonesia. Fourteen members including Deng Liangyue (President of WFAS), David P. J. Hung (Ex-president of WFAS) were present and eight members were absent. From the Department of International Affaires of JSAM, TAKASAWA Naomi and I attended the meeting on behalf of Japanese EC members, KUROSU Yukio (Vice president of WFAS) and TSUTANI Kiichiro (Counselor of JSAM). TOGO Toshihiro, a member of our department also attended the meeting as an observer.
The meeting started with opening remarks from Li DaNing, vice-Director of SATCM (State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine) and the session was chaired by Shen ZhiXiang (Secretary-general of WFAS). In the meeting, the following issues were discussed and approved.
1. A cooperation plan between WHO and WFAS, 2007-2009 was presented.
2. Four proposals from the WFAS secretary-general were presented.
  2-1 Proposal on holding an academic conference
  2-2 Proposal on strengthening work of the World Journal of Acupuncture-Moxibustion.
  2-3 Proposal on the establishment of committee offices
  2-4 Proposal on developing member societies of WFAS.
3. Another four proposals regarding the establishment of four Committees were also presented by the secretary-general; Science and Technology Committee, University Cooperation Committee, International Volunteer Working Committee, and Management Committee of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicinal International Standardization Foundation.
4. Nine new groups were approved for admission to WFAS as member societies.
5. A new working committee nomination list was introduced and executive committee decided to contact committee members in three months for a vote.
6. The secretary-general of WFAS reported on the present state of WFAS website (www.wfas.org.cn) and a plan about the WHO internet tool case program on Traditional Medicine.
7. Li Weiheng, president of the China association of acupuncture-moxibustion, introduced the preparation of the 20th anniversary of WFAS and international acupuncture congress.
Lastly, President Deng made a closing address to conclude all of the issues on the agenda.

The purpose of this symposium was to clarify clinical significance of the pulse diagnosis at the wrist used for detecting the function of various organs. Base of the literature survey and his personal experiences, the importance of reliability (reproducibility) test of the pulse diagnosis in blinded manner and necessity of clinical trials with “_??_”-specific intervention was proposed by Ogawa. A unique training program of the pulse diagnosis was introduced by Kido, and he also demonstrated a significant positive result of “_??_”-specific intervention determined by the pulse diagnosis procedure in his program and suggested the clinical significance of the pulse diagnosis. Detection of various changes in pulse waveforms at the wrist using pressure transducer was demonstrated by Maruyama, and he also suggested a possible progress of objectivity in pulse diagnosis by various sensors and biomedical devices in future. From circulatory physiological point of view, factors which may affect the pressure pulse wave at the wrist were explained with several examples of pathologic conditions by Chihara. He also suggested a possibility of reflection of general condition in the pressure pulse at the wrist although it might be partial one, and stressed the necessity of other information for the accurate diagnosis. In general discussion, it was pointed out that evidence of the pulse diagnosis was still limited, and further experimental approaches of the pulse diagnosis will be required.

Educational Research was carried out in a joint national survey by questionnaire in a school for the visually impaired and a vocational school in joint research with Anma-Massage-Shiatsu and Acupuncture and Moxibustion Therapy, aiming at collecting fundamental materials that examine the way of the future of the therapy.
The collection rate for the questionnaire was 71.4% for schools for the visually impaired and 68.3% from the vocational schools (70.3% in total as of August 16, 2006).
When examining the survey results and paying attention to the common and different points between the schools for the visually impaired and the vocational schools, we reviewed the present conditions and subjects in the curriculum reform. We recognized the actual conditions and problems in today's curriculum reform in a comparison of both schools.
We would be pleased if this study became an opportunity to enter a new phase for “Anma-Massage-Shiatsu and acupuncture and moxibustion therapy education”, while respecting the situations of schools for the visually impaired and vocational schools.

The 2nd Hwa To International Symposium (Integration of Eastern & Western Medicine) was held in Amsterdam on the 23rd & 24th of September 2006. “Hwa To” is a name of a famous ancient Chinese doctor, and the sponsor of this symposium is “Hwa To International University of T.C.M.” in Amsterdam. About 200 members participated from 19 countries, and as Japanese speakers Mr. Seino and Watanabe were invited. As the drawing up of the abstract book was not in time for the opening of the symposium, the contents of presentations were not clear except the name of speakers and their themes. Most of the presentations were lecture, and almost all of the lectures were expressed in English, and there were no loss of time by translation from Chinese to English which is usual in the assemblies of WFAS.
The atmosphere of the symposium or the titles of the card of Prof. Rangkuti suggested me that the European society of acupuncture has a tendency to keep aloof from WFAS.

Genome Medicine and Acupuncture Medicine have a common attempt to explain them with one keyword, that is, DNA and Qi. I was taught at Meiji University of Oriental Medicine that Oriental Medicine had the advantage of personalized treatment along with the individual's physical conditions while Western Medicine provides standardized treatment. In addition, treating Mibyou (potential disease) was considered. However, this priority is not unique to Oriental Medicine because Genome Medicine aims at personalized medicine or preventive medicine.
In this paper, I introduce: 1) research trends towards personalized medicine, 2) reconstitution of genomic information and its clinical application, 3) the significance of acupuncture research from a genomic point of view and its achievements (Takaoka et al.: Articles in Press, Physiol Genomics, March 6, 2007). This Special Lecture was updated with additional data and findings from Physiological Genomics.

“The most proper way to unify all disciplines is to study and unite them by yourself.” (“Challenges to Science” (in Japanese) by Professor Hitoshi Takeuchi and Professor Takeshi Umehara)

[Objective] The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of acupuncture and local injection for neck pain.
[Methods] A randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted in which 33 patients with neck pain were randomly allocated to either an acupuncture group or a local injection group. For the acupuncture group (n=16), a stainless steel needle was inserted to a depth of 10 to 20 mm and manually stimulated (sparrow pecking method) for 20 seconds. A 25 gauge needle was inserted to a depth of 10 to 20 mm and neovitacain (dibucaine hydrochloride 0.1%, sodium salicylate 0.3%, calcium bromide 0.2%) and neurotropin (non protein component extracted from the skin of rabbits treated with vaccinia virus) were injected for the local injection groups (n=17). Both groups received each treatment at the most painful points weekly for four weeks. Primary outcome measurement was intensity of the pain evaluated with a visual analogue scale (VAS). Secondary outcomes were the Neck Disability Index (NDI) and a standardized questionnaire of cervical root disease (developed by Tanaka et al. at Tohoku Univ.). The evaluations were independent from the therapists.
[Results] The acupuncture groups showed better results in all the outcome measurements than those in the local injection group for the effect immediately after the treatment, the effect of sequential treatment and the continuing effect after completion of treatment.
[Discussion] The result of this study suggested that acupuncture can be a useful treatment method compared with local injection. The difference in the effects between the two treatment methods may be due to the difference in the mechanism to suppress pain.