Dr. Sheng Xiesun, from a TCM physician's family, has practised acupuncture for 50 years. In Dr. Sheng's view, although the traditional acupuncture techniques were based on Miraculous Pivot (灵枢经)， and already well-developed in the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, we must be aware that the formation and development of acupuncture techniques have been going along with the improvement of acupuncture needles. The acupuncture techniques described in Internal Classic (内经) are the ones practiced in the times of the "nine needlings"; while in the Song and Ming Dynasties the needling techniques were based on the use of filiform needles.

Forty-five cases of apoplexy were treated by electroacupuncture only at the points of Yin Meridians (i.e. the Hand- and Foot-Taiyin Meridians), and the other 30 cases as the controls were treated only at the points of Yang Meridians (i.e. the Hand- and Foot-Yangming Meridians). The total effective rate was 91.1% in the former and 86.7% in the latter, with no statistically significant difference between the two groups, indicating that acupuncture only at the points of Yin-Meridians is also an effective therapy for apoplexy.

Based on our clinical experience,we formulated Huo Xue Tong Luo Tang(活血通络汤HXTL Decoction),a prescription for treatment of lacunar cerebral infarction.Most of the ingredients are those in the prescriptions of Di Dang Tang(抵当汤)and Gui Gan Long Mu Tang(桂甘龙牡汤)described in the book Treatise of Febrile Diseases(伤寒论)in accordance with the compatible theory of principal,assistant,adjuvant and guiding drugs for improving blood circulation,removing stasis,dispelling endogenous wind and phlegm,inducing resuscitation,removing obstruction in the channels,and balancing the yin and yang.

Urticaria is a common and frequently encountered disease, which is mainly manifested by extreme pruritus and lumpish eruption of the skin. Acute urticaria with a short disease course can be cured, while the chronic one with repeated attacks is a lingering disorder. In the past few years, 40 cases of urticaria were treated by cupping at the back-shu points of the five zang-organs and Geshu (BL 17). Another 20 cases in the control group were treated with Fang Feng Tong Sheng Wan (防风通圣丸Miraculous Pills of Ledebouriella) and chlorpheniramine maleate. The therapeutic effect in the treatment group was significantly superior to that in the control group. The results are reported as follows.

The serum reproductive hormone levels were examined with radioimmunoassay in women of child-bearing age before and after treatment with the prescriptions containing Lei Gong Teng (雷公藤Radix Tripterygii Wilfordii). The results showed that Lei Gong Teng could induce amenorrhea, but it was reversible.

Fengchi (GB 20) is a point of the Gallbladder Meridian of Foot-Shaoyang. It is commonly used in clinical practice. According to the literature of traditional Chinese medicine, Fengchi (GB 20) can be used to treat many diseases, especially for the disorders caused by pathogenic wind. The indications include common cold, headache, cervical spondylosis, trigeminal neuralgia, hypertension, apoplexy, neurasthenia, epilepsy, optic atrophy, tinnitus, myopia, and painful heel etc. The viewpoints of different schools varies on the needling angle and depth at Fengchi (GB 20). Perpendicularly puncturing 0.3-0.7cun deep is recorded in most of the ancient books. Puncturing to a depth of 1.2 cun is mentioned in Fundamentals of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (针灸资生经) and Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (针灸大成). Jiang Yijun, a modern famous acupuncturist, holds that the depth of needle insertion at Fengchi (GB 20) should be varied in different individuals and different diseases. In general, deep puncture should be adopted for the disease in deep location, shallow puncture for the disease in shallow area, and tapping with plum-blossom needle for the disease on the skin. These will be introduced below.

Integration of acupuncture and drug is a therapeutic method in which acupuncture treatment and pharmacotherapy are synchronously performed in the same patient to prevent and treat the disease. Its importance can be traced back to Sun Simiao (581-682 A.D.), a prominent physician of China's Tang Dynasty. He pointed out that: A physician who masters only acupuncture treatment in clinical practice but not moxibustion, or masters only moxibustion treatment but not acupuncture is not a skillful doctor; and a physician who is only aware of the application of acupuncture and moxibustion but ignorant of pharmacotherapy, or is only aware of pharmacotherapy but ignorant of the application of acupuncture and moxibustion also should not be a skillful one. Not only should a skillful doctor have the knack of applying acupuncture and moxibustion, but he should have the knack at pharmacotherapy in treating diseases. Each of acupuncture and moxibustion, and drug has its strong points. Therefore, both of them should be used simultaneously, thus bringing the strong points of both individuals into full play and offsetting their weaknesses so as to obtain a satisfactory therapeutic effect. With the development of modern medicine and introduction of advanced technology, there have been brilliant developments in the method and applied range of integration of acupuncture and drug, particularly in the studies on combined anesthesia induced by using acupuncture and drug, and administering drug by acupoint. All these have provided us a ground to further probe into the mechanism underlying the integration of acupuncture and drug.

Neuritis of lateral cutaneous nerve of thigh, also called meralgia paresthetica, is a commonly encountered disease in clinical practice. The author has treated 28 cases of meralgia paresthetica since 1996 by acupuncture plus point-injection with satisfactory results. A report follows.Clinical Data Among the 28 cases, 13 were male and 15 female. Their age ranged from 24 to 72 years, most of the patients being 35 to 50 years; the duration of illness varied from one month to ten years and 6 cases were affected on left side, 8 cases on right side and 14 cases on both sides.

Pseudobulbar paralysis is a kind of common clinical syndromes of cerebral vascular diseases, which is manifested as dyslalia, dysphagia and choking. By several-year clinical observations, 36 cases were treated with satisfactory therapeutic effects as reported in the following.Clinical Data Of 36 in-patients, there were 24 males and 12 females, aged from 44 to 81 years, averaging 64.92 years. Of 36 cases, 24 were at the acute stage and 12 at the recovery stage. All the cases were diagnosed as cerebral vascular diseases by cranial CT scan and MRI, of which, 4 were cerebral infarction, 26 lacunar cerebral infarction, 5 cerebral hemorrhage and 1 mixed type. Of 36 cases, 15 were the first attack of wind-stroke, 15 the second attack, 5 the third attack and 1 the forth attack. There were 26 patients with hypertension among 36 cases, of which, 8 patients suffered from hypertension within 10 years, 6 for more than 10 years, 9 for more than 20 years and 3 for more than 30 years. All the 36 cases were associated with dysphagia and agreeable to Standard on Diagnosis and Evaluation of Therapeutic Effects of Wind-stroke issued by the State Scientific Committee 85-919-01-01, 1995.

From April 1992 to April 1998, 104 cases of chemotherapy-induced leukopenia were treated by injection into Zusanli (ST 36) with a mixture consisting of dexamethasone, 654-2, ATP and inosine. The therapeutic results were satisfactory as reported in the following.Clinical Data In this series, all the 127 cases were definitely diagnosed by pathological examination. Of them, 93 were male and 34 female, ranging in age from 12 to 75 years. 38 cases were carcinoma of esophagus, 22 carcinoma of cardia of stomach, 21 cancer of lung, 11 hepatic carcinoma, 8 lymphoma, 8 mammary cancer, 7 carcinoma of colon, and 12 other kinds of the tumors. Leukocyte count was below 4.0×109/L in all the patients after being treated by chemotherapy.

Repeated respiratory tract infection is a frequently-occurring disease during childhood. At present, western medicine doctors generally adopt anti-infectives and immunomodulators to treat the disease, while traditional Chinese medicine doctors mainly administer decoction of Chinese herbs. The authors treated 46 cases of repeated respiratory tract infection from March 1990 to April 1996 by applying mild-moxibustion over points on the back with satisfactory therapeutic results. A report follows.Clinical Data All the 86 cases were outpatients in our hospital with duration of common cold for over 10 days and characterized by relapse of respiratory tract infection. There were over 7-time relapse of respiratory tract infection on each case within a year. Eighty-six cases were randomly divided into treatment group (46 cases) and control group (40 cases). Of the 46 cases in the treatment group, 22 were boys and 24 girls. 17 cases (36.9%) were 6 months to 4 years old, 18 (39.1%) 4 to 6 years, and 11 (23.9%) 6 to 12 years. Among the 40 cases in the control group, 19 cases were boys and 21 girls.

There are three principles which need to be grasped in the clinical use of Chinese drugs in the treatment of hypertension: Combination of syndrome differentiation in TCM with disease-differentiation in western medicine; combination of the theory of TCM with the results of modern pharmacological researches; and combination of symptom improving, blood-pressure reducing with complications preventing measures.Use of Chinese Drugs Based on the Western Medical Stages of Hypertension Patients should be classified for clinical stages of hypertension according to western medical criteria before TCM treatment program is made. For instance, in hypertension patients, apart from high blood pressure, there may also be other symptoms such as headache, dizziness, distending sensation in the head, stiff sensation in the neck, dim eyesight, tinnitus, poor memory, inability to concentrate the mind, insomnia, disphoria, general weakness, numbness of the four limbs, and palpitation. In some patients, these symptoms may not always be directly related to hypertension. In these cases, treatment for reducing blood pressure may not be taken into consideration, and the treatment based on general differentiation of the symptoms may serve the purpose. Only after the differential use of Chinese drugs shows no obvious improvement of the symptoms and high blood pressure, the treatment will be aimed at hypertension per se. When Chinese drugs alone can not reduce blood pressure, western medicine is often used in combination to reduce blood pressure, blood lipids and uric acid, correct water-electrolyte metabolism, and improve blood rheology. The combined Chinese and western medical treatment can make up each other's deficiencies so as to give better therapeutic effects.

The Ji De Sheng She Yao tablet (季德胜蛇药片）is a drug for snake-bites and insect bites. According to recent reports, this drug has been used to treat herpes zoster, hepatitis B, parotitis, nephrotic syndrome, acute conjunctivitis, recurrent aphtha, urticaria, etc.1 with good therapeutic effects. More than half of the AIDS patients suffered from herpes zoster. The area of skin lesion in AIDS patients is larger than that of the patients without AIDS and the pain lasts longer. Many cases have keloids and depigmentation for months, even severe pain till their death. Routine therapeutic methods are not satisfactory in therapeutic effects. The expert group of traditional Chinese medicine for cooperative research on AIDS used Ji De Sheng She Yao tablets (季德胜蛇药片) to treat AIDS complicated by herpes zoster for the first time and the results are reported as follows.

From January 1993 to December 1996, we treated 482 cases of cervical spondylopathy with a combined method of point-injection and needle-warming via moxibustion. Except for the cases of sympathetic nerve type and spinal cord type, the combined method was superior to traction therapy in the control group and reported as follows.Clinical DataThe Criteria of Diagnosis and Curative Effect in TCM issued by the State Administrative Bureau of TCM and Pharmacy in 1994 was adopted for the enrollment of patients of cervical spondylopathy and the pathological typing. Only the patients who had completed the treatment and with complete records were collected for analysis.

To approach the mechanism of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in causing acute lung injury (ALI) and the protective effect of rhubarb and dexamethasone, lung specimens were examined with macroscopy, microscopy, electron microscopy and the biological markers of ALI including lung wet/dry weight, the rate of neutrophils and protein content in the pulmonary alveolar lavage fluid, pulmonary capillary permeability and pulmonary alveolar permeability index were observed. The mechanism of the ALI is mainly due to direct injury of alveolar epithelium and pulmonary vascular endothelium. Rhubarb and dexamethasone could significantly reduce the edema of the lung tissue, decrease the red blood cell exudation, neutrophil infiltration and plasma protein exudation in the alveoli and all the biological markers in comparison with the ALI model rats, indicating they have protective action on vascular endothelium and alveolar epithelium.

In the sarcoma S180 ascitic mice, the effects of moxa-cone moxibustion at Guanyuan (CV 4) on erythrocytic immunity and its regulative function were investigated. The results indicated that moxibustion at Guanyuan (CV 4) could significantly increase the decreased erythrocytic C3b receptor rosette forming rate (RBC-C3bRR), lower the raised erythrocytic immunocomplex rosette forming rate (RBC-ICR, P<0.05 or P<0.01), increase the decreased activity of erythrocytic immuno-accelerative factor, and reduce the increased activity of erythrocytic immunosuppressive factor (P<0.05) in the tumor-bearing mice. This suggests that moxibustion at Guanyuan (CV 4) can strengthen erythrocytic immunity and promote its regulative function.

Metabolic changes in rats with photochemically induced cerebral infarction and the effects of batroxobin were investigated 1, 3, 5 and 7 days after infarction by means of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), 1H- and 31P- magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). A region of T2 hyperintensity was observed in left temporal neocortex in infarction group and batroxobin group 1, 3, 5 and 7 days after infarction. The volume of the region gradually decreased from 1 day to 7 days after infarction. The ratio of NAA/Cho+Cr in the region of T2 hyperintensity in the infarction group was significantly lower than that in the corresponding region in the sham-operated group 3, 5 and 7 days after infarction respectively (P<0.05). Lac appeared in the region of T2 hyperintensity in the infarction group 1, 3, 5 and 7 days after infarction, but it was not observed in the corresponding region in sham-operated group at all time points. Compared with the sham-operated group, the ratios of bATP/PME+PDE and PCr/PME+PDE of the whole brain in the infarction group were significantly lower 1, 3 and 5 days after infarction respectively (P<0.05), and the ratio of bATP/PCr also was significantly lower 1 day after infarction (P<0.05). Batroxobin significantly decreased the volume of the region of T2 hyperintensity 1 and 3 days after infarction (P<0.05), significantly increased the ratio of NAA/Cho+Cr in the region 5 and 7 days after infarction (P<0.05), significantly decreased the ratios of Lac/Cho+Cr and Lac/NAA in the region 5 and 7 days after infarction (P<0.05), and significantly increased the ratios of bATP/PME+PDE and bATP/PCr in the whole brain 1 day after infarction (P<0.05). The results indicated that the infracted region had severe edema, increased Lac and apparent neuronal dysfunction and death, and energy metabolism of the whole brain decreased after focal infarction, and that batroxobin effectively ameliorated the above-mentioned abnormal changes.

In the recent decade, interest in treatment and prevention of many critical, severe and acute diseases caused by bacterial endotoxins has been aroused along with the advance of the knowledge on the nature of the endotoxin and the conditions involved. In abroad, attention has been mainly payed to raising antisera and monocolonal antibodies against the endotoxin and the induced mediators. However, the allergic reactions and the cost are still the problems. Till now, there is no drug that can antagonize endotoxin with high effectiveness and low toxicity. Clinical treatments are still confined in inhibiting or killing the pathogen, and correcting the internal environmental disturbance. Being less toxic and rich in resources with low cost and less side-effects, screening of effective Chinese drugs for antagonizing endotoxin is of important and practical significance. Endotoxin belongs to the category of toxic evils, or more precisely, the heat toxin in TCM. Therefore the application of heat-clearing and detoxifying Chinese drugs to antagonizing endotoxins is consistent with the theory of TCM. Some achievements in this field are reported as follows.

Case History Song××, a male middle school teacher aged 58 years, paid his first visit on August 7, 2000, with the chief complaint of pain in the left hypochondrium for 20 days. The patient stated that he suddenly got a sharp burning pain in the left hypochondrium in mid July. The pain gradually radiated to the upper abdominal area, meanwhile red herpes appeared in the hypochondriac region. He had been diagnosed as having herpes zoster, and treated in several nearby hospitals with fluid infusion and medication. As a result, the herpes partly disappeared. But the sharp burning pain still remained, which could not be relieved by administration of analgetics. The patient was then recommended by his friends for treatment here. The patient used to be in a anxious state of mind, and had a wiry pulse and disorder of the liver-qi. The patients had been disturbed by problems of his students and worried about his aged mother's illness, and had poor sleep. Physical examination showed that the patient had a slightly fat figure and sickly complexion, but was in a clear mind. His blood pressure was 140/90 mmHg, and heart rate 75 times/min. No abnormal signs were found in the heart and lungs. Prominent dark red herpes with obvious local tenderness was found on the skin surface of the left hypochondrium and upper abdome.

Base on the folk secret formula, the medical personals have developed Qu Feng Powder (祛风散) and Qu Feng Pills (祛风丸) which are made from pure Chinese herbs, indicated for rheumatic diseases, hyperosteopeny, and protrusion of intervertebral disc, etc. In the training course, you can learn the pathogenic mechanism, diagnosis and treatment based on TCM differentiation of syndromes, and preparation of the above drugs. For further details and application form, please contact with the Training school.Address: Training School of Rheumatism, Julu County 055250, Hebei Province, P. R. ChinaTel: 86-319-4338563

External humeral epicondylitis or tennis elbow, is a commonly encountered disease in orthopaedics and traumatology. The curative effect is not satisfactory as far as its treatment by western and traditional Chinese medicine is concerned, which has a long course of treatment and a high recurrent rate. 70 cases of external humeral epicondylitis were treated by massotherapy after local blocking from August 1995 to October 1997 at this hospital with satisfactory therapeutic effects.Clinical DataOf the 70 cases in this series treated by massotherapy after local blocking, 30 were males and 40 females, ranging in age from 19 to 65 years. 55 cases were 30 to 50 years old, 20 had the left elbow affected and 50 the right elbow. 7 cases had a history of trauma, 50 a history of chronic strain, and 13 the cause unknown. The shortest duration of disease was 15 days and the longest 24 months.Among 50 cases in the control group treated by massotherapy, 20 cases were males and 30 females, ranging in age from 16 to 58 years. 40 cases were 30 to 50 years old. 15 cases were affected on the left elbow and 35 on the right elbow. 6 cases had a history of trauma, 32 a history of chronic strain, and 12 the cause unknown. The shortest duration of diseases was 7 days and the longest 22 months.