American researchers have used localized ultrasound to reduce symptoms associated with Parkinson’s disease, such as tremors.
- In France, 167,000 people are affected by Parkinson’s disease, according to the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm).
- Over the years, Parkinson’s disease causes tremors, difficulty in movement and stiffness in the limbs.
- A significant improvement in symptoms related to Parkinson’s disease has been observed in patients who have benefited from focused ultrasound.
Parkinson’s disease is a slow and progressive neurodegenerative pathology. Nearly 167,000 people are affected by this condition in France, according to the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm).
This pathology results in the destruction of certain neurons in the brain and the accumulation of toxic clusters of proteins for nerve cells. The three main motor symptoms associated with Parkinson’s disease are:
- hypertonia, in other words the rigidity of the limbs;
- tremors;
- akinesia which is a difficulty in initiating movement generally associated with bradykinesia, slowness of movement, and/or hypokinesia, poor movement.
Ultrasound to reduce the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease
In a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found significant improvement in tremor and mobility in patients with Parkinson’s disease who underwent a minimally invasive procedure using focused ultrasound.
During the clinical trial, scientists from the University of Maryland School of Medicine (USA) recruited 94 patients with this neurodegenerative disease. They were divided into two groups: the first underwent a procedure using focused ultrasound at a targeted region on one side of the brain, and the second benefited from a sham procedure.
Performed without an incision or anesthesia, the focused ultrasounds were performed in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner where the patients were awake and wearing transducer headphones. Ultrasonic energy was directed through the skull to the globus pallidus, an area that helps control regular voluntary movements. MRI images provided scientists with a temperature map of the area to be treated in order to precisely locate the target and apply a high enough temperature to ablate it.
Focused ultrasound: a positive response in 70% of patients
According to the results, approximately 70% of patients in the focused ultrasound group responded successfully to the treatment after three months of follow-up compared to 32% of participants in the control group. One year after treatment, two-thirds of the participants in the first group continued to have a positive response.
“These results are very promising and offer patients with Parkinson’s disease a new form of therapy to manage their symptoms. There is no incision, which means there is no risk of ‘serious infection or cerebral hemorrhage’noted Doctor Howard Eisenberg, corresponding author of the study and professor of neurosurgery at the University of Maryland.
In 2022, the device’s focused ultrasound, called Exablate Neuro, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States, but only to treat advanced forms of Parkinson’s disease on one side of the brain.
