Breakthrough in the treatment of parkinsonism

Focused ultrasound therapy

Svetlana Maslova, Hi-tech+

Ultrasound treatment significantly reduced the symptoms of the incurable disease in all patients. Now scientists are considering a new therapeutic strategy as an alternative to brain surgery.

The treatment is based on exposure to focused ultrasound, scientists from the University of Virginia explain. The technology focuses sound waves inside the body and allows you to disable disrupted neural connections or destroy damaged areas of brain tissue. The entire treatment process is monitored by MRI in real time. This allows you to adjust the degree of exposure to achieve the best effects.

Article by Martínez-Fernández et al. A Randomized Trial of Focused Ultrasound Subthalamotomy for Parkinson's Disease is published in the New England Journal of Medicine – VM.

For example, when exposed to the subthalamic nucleus of the brain, it was possible to reduce the severity of symptoms very effectively, scientists found. They conducted a placebo-controlled study in which 27 volunteers received focused ultrasound therapy, and 13 people received a simulated procedure. All participants had asymmetric symptoms of the disease, when, for example, a tremor occurs on the left or right sides of the body.

The symptoms of the disease before and after treatment were evaluated on a scale from 1 to 44.

After treatment, all patients reported improvements of 10 points, while in the placebo group, positive changes were less than two points.

Side effects included unwanted movements, muscle weakness, speech disorders, and difficulty walking. In most cases, they were temporary, but a year after treatment in six people, some of them were still present.

Currently, the American FDA regulator has already approved focused ultrasound therapy for the treatment of tremor in Parkinson's disease, but the symptoms of the condition go far beyond involuntary movements of limbs and other parts of the body. The authors hope that the new approach will qualitatively reduce the degree of tremor and more effectively cope with many other signs of the disease.

For now, scientists need to achieve greater safety of the procedure. In the future, it will be shown to those patients who do not want or cannot perform invasive brain surgery.

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