Edematous Erythema at the Hands and Feet Probably Caused By the Traditional Herb “Radix Astragali”

Objective To describe a patient with erhythema and edema after Radix Astragali was added to a kampo formula. Case summary A 21-year-old male, who was diagnosed as having atopic dermatitis in 1989, demonstrated systemic dry eruptions and consulted our department for treatment with traditional herbal medicine (THM) in 2004. The oral administration of herbal medicine resulted in decreased symptoms as well as a reduction in the serum IgE level. In August 2007, he complained of sweating on the neck and we added Radix Astragali to the previous formula. About 18 hours after he ingested the new formula including Radix Astragali, erhythema appeared with swelling of the bilateral hands and feet. Administration of the formula was discontinued and about 48 hours later, his symptoms had almost disappeared. Astragaloside, which is the main ingredient of Radix Astragali, was negative on lymphocyte transforming test (LTT) and we could not determine the ingredient that induced erhythema. Conclusion We consider that the Radix Astragali induced acute erhythema with swelling based on the clinical course. Acute edematous erythema due to THM is very rare and we discuss allergic reactions to traditional herbs and review the litrature

Four Cases of Dysthymic Disorder and General Malaise Successfully Treated with Traditional Herbal (Kampo) Medicines: Kamiuntanto

Traditional herbal (Kampo) medicines have been used since ancient times to treat patients with mental disorders. In the present report, we describe four patients with dysthymia successfully treated with Kampo medicines: Kamiuntanto (KUT). These four patients fulfilled the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) criteria for dysthymic disorder with easy fatigability and sleeplessness, but did not fulfill the criteria for major depressive disorder. Treatment with KUT relieved depressive status, fatigue and sleeplessness in these patients. As a result, their QOL (quality of life) was considerably improved. KUT may be useful as an additional or alternative treatment for dysthymia, especially in the field of primary health care

Exploring walking behavior in SU(3) gauge theory with 4 and 8 HISQ quarks

We present the report of the LatKMI collaboration on the lattice QCD simulation for the cases of 4 and 8 flavors. The Nf=8 in particular is interesting from the model-building point of view: The typical walking technicolor model with the large anomalous dimension is the so-called one-family model (Farhi-Susskind model). Thus we explore the walking behavior in LQCD with 8 HISQ quarks by comparing with the 4-flavor case (in which the chiral symmetry is spontaneously broken). We report preliminary results on the spectrum, analyzed through the chiral perturbation theory and the finite-size hyperscaling, and we discuss the availability of the Nf=8 QCD to the phenomenology.Comment: 7 pages, Proceedings of 30th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, June 24-29, 2012, Cairns, Australi

The Observation of Humoral Responses after Influenza Vaccination in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Treated with Japanese Oriental (Kampo) Medicine: An Observational Study

Objective. The efficacy of influenza vaccination in patients treated with Japanese Oriental (Kampo) Medicine is unknown. The objectives of this study were to observe the efficacy of influenza vaccination in RA patients treated with Kampo. Methods. Trivalent influenza subunit vaccine was administered to 45 RA patients who had received Kampo. They were divided into 2 groups: RA patients treated without MTX (“without MTX group”) and treated with MTX (“with MTX group”). Antibody titers were measured before and 4 weeks after vaccination using hemagglutination inhibition assay. Results. Geometric mean titers (GMTs) of anti-influenza antibodies significantly increased for all influenza strains. Response to the influenza vaccination in RA patients treated with Kampo was not lower than that of healthy subjects and the response in the “with MTX group” had a tendency to be higher than that in RA patients treated with MTX in the previous study. There was no significant difference in the GMT after 4 weeks between the “with MTX group” and the “without MTX group.” A decreased efficacy in both seroprotection and seroconversion was not found in the “with MTX group.” Conclusion. These observations may open the way for further clinical trials to establish the efficacy for the influenza vaccination in RA patients treated with Kampo