LONDON (Reuters) - Stimulating a specific area of the brain with magnetic pulses may help patients with partial damage to their spinal cord to improve muscle movement and feeling, scientists said on Monday.
In a preliminary study of four partially paralysed patients who had been injured more than 18 months earlier, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) improved the patients’ ability to move and feel.
“Through rTMS we may be able to help people who have suffered partial injuries to the spinal cord recover some of their movement and feeling,” said Dr Nick Davey, of Imperial College London and Charing Cross Hospital, who tested the method.
All of the patients in the study had incomplete spinal cord injuries. Dr. Davey said the treatment is not suitable for patients with more severe injury because it does not repair the spinal cord.
He and his colleagues think the treatment works by strengthening the information leaving the brain through the undamaged neurons in the spinal cord, similar to the way physiotherapy repeats a physical movement.
“I think it is activating the same pathways in the brain as repeated movement,” he said. “It is exciting neurons in the brain in the same way you would if you made a natural movement.”
The team of scientists gave rTMS and a placebo treatment to the cerebral cortex of all of the patients. Their results are published in the journal Spinal Cord.
The patients received one hour a day of rTMS over five consecutive days and repeated the process with the placebo treatment. After each series, the researchers tested intracortical inhibition, which if it is weak means it is easier for messages from the brain to pass to the spinal cord to the rest of the body.
The investigators found rTMS reduced intracortical inhibition compared to the placebo treatment in the patients and improved movement and feeling.
Dr. Davey and his colleagues are now planning to extend their research to more patients and to study its impact on people with recent spinal injuries.
“Our gut feeling is that this tool ... is going to be more effective if you get the patients earlier,” Davey added.
Spinal Cord, 2004.
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