DLPF Targeted Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Improves Brain Glucose Metabolism Along with the Clinical and Electrophysiological Parameters in CBD Patients

Abstract

Background: Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD) is a rare neurological disease caused by the pathological accumulation of tau protein. The primary pathological features of CBD include progressive neurodegenerative processes resulting in remarkable frontoparietal and basal ganglia atrophy.

Objective: Like in many other neurodegenerative disorders, there is still no effective disease-modifying drug therapy in CBD. Therefore, the development of new treatment methods is of great importance. In this study, we aimed to assess the stimulating effects of high-frequency DLPFC rTMS on the motor, cognitive and behavioral disturbances in four CBD patients.

Methods: Four (three females, one male) CBD patients who had been diagnosed as CBD were enrolled in this study. Patients were evaluated before and after the rTMS procedure regarding the motor, neuropsychometric and behavioral tests. The results of statistical analysis of behavioral and neuropsychometric evaluation were assessed via SPSS 18.0 package program. Data are expressed as mean, standard deviation. Before and after values of the groups were compared with the Wilcoxon sign rank test, and p<0.05 was considered significant.

Results: We have provided strong preliminary evidence that the improvement in clinical parameters was associated with the normalizations of the theta activity and glucose metabolism.

Conclusion: Our current results are consistent with some previous trials showing a strong association between DLPFC targeted rTMS and electrophysiological normalizations in the left DLPFC.