Kampo medicine, a traditional Japanese herbal medicine, is covered by the Japanese National Health Insurance and prescribed for various purposes. While relatively safe with few adverse effects, it may potentially cause severe adverse effects, such as lung injury. Herein, we describe the case of a 61-year-old Japanese woman with choreito-induced lung injury that manifested as organizing pneumonia (OP) with diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH). She was referred to our department due to multiple abnormal opacities detected on annual chest radiography. Chest computed tomography (CT) revealed multiple nodules in bilateral lungs. Bloody bronchoalveolar lavage fluid was obtained from the left lingular lobe, appearing nearly normal, while a transbronchial lung biopsy from a subpleural nodule in the left lower lobe was pathologically consistent with OP. The drug lymphocyte stimulation test result was positive for choreito, which the patient had regularly consumed for 6 - 7 months to treat hematuria. Consequently, a diagnosis of choreito-induced OP and DAH was made. Owing to the discontinuation of choreito alone and without the introduction of systemic steroid therapy, the multiple nodules shrank and eventually disappeared on follow-up chest CT. Regardless of the type of crude drug used in Kampo medicine, clinicians must always be careful for potential lung injury, which may present as OP with DAH.

Choreito, a Japanese Kampo medicine, is used to treat Japanese female patients for the quick relief of inflammatory symptoms associated with acute cystitis. We evaluated whether Choreito is effective in reducing antibiotic use and the number of clinic visits for these patients. Females aged 18-49 years who had acute cystitis for the first time, with no history of medical insurance use within 90 days prior to their visit, and no hospitalizations within the 30 days after their first visit were identified from the JMDC Claims Database between April 2018 and March 2021. For the 30 days after their first visit, patients who were given their first antimicrobial prescriptions with or without Choreito were compared regarding (i) the number of clinic visits, (ii) total antimicrobial prescription days, and (iii) the number of antimicrobial prescriptions adjusted for their age, Charlson comorbidity index, and the COVID-19 pandemic period (after April 2020). For the 319 and 8515 patients with or without a Choreito prescription, respectively, multivariable Poisson regression analyses showed that Choreito was significantly associated with a 5% shortening of a patient\'s total antimicrobial prescription days (Beta, 0.950; p = 0.038), whereas no significant difference was observed in the number of clinic visits and antimicrobial prescriptions (p = 0.624 and p = 0.732, respectively). The prescription of Choreito in combination with antimicrobials was associated with a slight reduction in total antimicrobial use for acute cystitis among females.

Interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) is a chronic inflammatory condition of the bladder. However, there are only a few medicines that are of pharmaceutical grade and reliably effective for IC/BPS symptoms. Choreito (CRT) is a pharmaceutical-grade Kampo medicine and has been widely prescribed for patients of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and BPS in Japan. In this study, we exploratory investigated the effects of CRT on the IC/BPS-like symptoms induced by tranilast.
The rat IC/BPS-like model was induced by feeding administration with 0.4% tranilast. The rats were divided into the three following treatment groups: normal diet (Normal), tranilast treatment (Control), and the groups of 1% CRT (CRT) treatment for IC/BPS-like model. After 4 weeks, continuous cystmetry, locomotor, and vascular permeability was assessed. Furthermore, the cytokine levels in bladder were analyzed by the Bio-Plex suspension array system and plasma monoamine were measured.
Control group exhibited 14.3% decrease of locomotor activity in the dark period, and which were 20.3% increase by 1%CRT treatment. The voiding interval was shorter in control than in other groups. 1%CRT suppressed the shortening of voiding interval. Evans blue leakage of bladder wall observed 44.8% higher in control group than in the normal group. The leakage of 1%CRT group was 33.3% less than in the control group. The cytokine level of IFNγ and VEGF were elevated in the control, and CRT treatment suppressed the elevation of IFNγ in the bladder. Plasma noradrenaline was significantly reduced by CRT treatment compared normal group.
These results suggest that CRT can be an effective therapeutic agent for the treatment of IC/BPS-like symptoms.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine whether Dahl salt-sensitive rats fed a high-salt diet would show features of nocturia due to nocturnal polyuria and to examine the efficacy of choreito (CRT) on nocturnal polyuria.
METHODS: Dahl salt-sensitive rats were divided into three groups. Group A was fed a 4% salt diet, group B a 2% salt diet, and group C a normal 0.3% salt diet. In groups α and β, other rats were further divided into two groups: The rats in group α were fed a 2% salt plus 3% CRT diet, and those in group β, were fed a 2% salt diet. Each rat was placed in an individual metabolic cage for 24 hours every week for 6 weeks. Water intake, urine production, voiding frequency, and voided volume per micturition were recorded.
RESULTS: The systolic blood pressure increased in the group fed a 4% salt diet compared to groups fed with a 2% and 0.3% salt diet. The urinary volume was higher in the groups fed with 4% and 2% salt than in the group fed with 0.3% salt. Further, water intake in the group fed a 2% salt plus 3% CRT diet was significantly lower than that in the group fed with a 2% salt diet.
CONCLUSIONS: Dahl salt-sensitive rats fed a 2% salt diet were candidates for a model of nocturnal polyuria. Using this model, we suggest that CRT reduces water intake in the active phase and contributes to water restriction in the treatment of nocturnal polyuria.

Choreito (CRT), a traditional Japanese (Kampo) medicine, is widely used for the treatment of overactive bladder (OAB) and other lower urinary tract symptoms in Japan. This study aimed to identify the effects and therapeutic mechanism of CRT on the improvement of detrusor overactivity (DO) using an experimental rat model. Forty-five female Sprague-Dawley rats were equally divided into three groups: intravesical saline instillation with normal food (normal group), intravesical acetic acid (AA) instillation with normal food (AA group), and intravesical AA instillation with CRT (AA with CRT group). To induce a decrease in bladder capacity, instillation of 0.2% AA was used based on prior studies. Cystometric investigation was employed to clarify the effects of AA and CRT. Microcirculation was performed using a laser blood flowmeter, and the localization of hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF1α) was assessed by immunohistochemistry. The bladder capacities of the normal, AA, and AA with CRT groups were 1.2 ± 0.3 mL, 0.4 ± 0.1 mL, and 0.8 ± 0.1 mL, respectively. CRT significantly attenuated AA irritation of the urinary bladder and exerted protective effects on basal pressure, micturition pressure, micturition interval, and micturition volume. Furthermore, CRT could prevent the excess blood flow and edematous change under the urothelium induced by intravesical AA instillation. No obvious changes in immunohistochemical HIF1α staining were observed among the groups. CRT attenuated DO induced by intravesical AA instillation in a rat experimental model. CRT might impart therapeutic effects on OAB via the mitigation of urothelial damage and regulation of excess blood flow.

Therapy for BK virus (BKV)-associated hemorrhagic cystitis (BKV-HC) is limited after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). We examined whether choreito, a formula from Japanese traditional Kampo medicine, is effective for treating BKV-HC. Among children who underwent allogeneic HSCT between October 2006 and March 2014, 14 were diagnosed with BKV-HC (median, 36 days; range, 14 to 330 days) after HSCT, and 6 consecutive children received pharmaceutical-grade choreito extract granules. The hematuria grade before treatment was significantly higher in the choreito group than in the nonchoreito group (P = .018). The duration from therapy to complete resolution was significantly shorter in the choreito group (median, 9 days; range, 4 to 17 days) than in the nonchoreito group (median, 17 days; range, 15 to 66 days; P = .037). In 11 children with macroscopic hematuria, the duration from treatment to resolution of macroscopic hematuria was significantly shorter in the choreito group than in the nonchoreito group (median, 2 days versus 11 days; P = .0043). The BKV load in urine was significantly decreased 1 month after choreito administration. No adverse effects related to choreito administration were observed. Choreito may be a safe and considerably promising therapy for the hemostasis of BKV-HC after HSCT.