We had an opportunity to treat a patient with chronic cold syndrome attributed to weak constitution who had been treated with Western medicine without any noticeable effect. The patient suffered from such symptoms as severe coughs, difficulty in expectorating sputum, afternoon fevers, loss of appetite, a strong sense of fatigue, and shallow sleep. Based on the “li fa fang xue shu” techniques (acupuncture diagnostic and treatment techniques) used in Chinese traditional medicine, the patient was diagnosed with cases of “fei qi yin liang xiu zhen” and “feng han fan fei zhen”. We applied the treatment of outward symptoms to the patient's major external symptoms and the treatment of source of illness to the primary underlying causes. The acupuncture needles used in the treatment were 0.26 × 40mm Chinese needles, 0.18 × 40mm disposable Japanese needles, and 5 mm pi nei zhen needles. The patient was treated once a week with senshi-chishin (needles left inserted in the surface of the skin for some time), kyuto-shin (needles with moxa on top), pi nei zhen (left inserted in the skin for some time) etc. On pi jing ba mai xue and zhen jing shu xue. This treatment produced favorable effects in the patient; her symptoms disappeared and she regained her stamina. These results seem to indicate that the diagnostic and clinical methodology based on Chinese traditional medicine can offer sound theoretical guidance in current acupuncture therapy.

We cured by acupuncture therapy seventeen cases of constipation which were caused by disfunction of the digestive system, not including organic disorder of this system.
Then we comparatively examined subjective and objective symptoms during the treatment period (about one month).
The results showed that acupuncture therapy was effective against the constipation and unspecified complaints which accompanied it. The improvemet ratio for the former was 58.8%, the latter 58.0%.
Moreover we were able to observe that the abdominal thermogrphic findings were improved simultaneously.
So we supposed that acupuncture stimulation was able to stabilize the function of the autonomic nervous system.

We investigated whether TEAS affected intellect in the elderly, prevented the decline of daily activity and/or improved HDS-R and elderly activity valuation scale in 93 aged patients over 70.
As a result, HDS-R and the elderly activity valuation scale increased after 8 weeks, in the physical exercise group that also received TEAS treatment, indicating a tendency to improve. Improved intellect was measured by asking subject to guess the time and date, recollect some words, and remember five items in HDS-R. All items on the elderly activity valuation scale were improved except for hearing and appetite. Many patients showed increased scores in combination with TEAS. Before treatment, patients in both groups were divided into 4 subgroups by HDS-R score and change in HDS-R was investigated after treatment for 8 weeks. Those scoring 16 points or more on the initial test tended to show an increased score in both groups, those showing 11-15 points initially demonstrated an increased score only in exercise in the combined group, and those showing 10 points or less did not demonstrate any change in either group.
Based on these results, physical therapy combined with TEAS appeared to accelerate daily activity and promote intellect and cognition in the elderly.

Acupuncturists should have clinical competency, including knowledge, skill and humanity, such as attitude.
In acupuncture and moxibustion educational institutions, educational objectives and strategies have been established to develop competency as a therapist. Therefore, an evaluation was performed in order to confirm the achievement of the learners, and whether the established initial objectives and strategies were appropriate or not.
As a matter of course, the National Examination for Acupuncture and Moxibustion Therapists is an evaluation standard which assesses the social competency oftherapists completing the educational course, namely they must have significance.
However, the current National Examination can only estimate the aspect of knowledge. Each educational in-stitution should, therefore, responsibly evaluate other acupuncturists' competency including skills and attitudes toward their competency insociety.
In the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), an adequate method to evaluate clinicians has widely been introduced for medical education.
The OSCE was introduced to educational circles of acupuncture in Japan because OSCE can evaluate competency; i.e. the psychomotor and affective domain, that is difficult to measure using a paper test.
Various difficulties still remain using OSCE for the education of acupuncture students in the view of both its adequacy and objectivity.
In the present paper, the actual condition and difficulty in using OSCE in education of acupuncture students are reviewed based on the reports presented atthe educational session of the conference.