Effects of different frequencies of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on the recovery of upper limb motor dysfunction in patients with subacute cerebral infarction

Jiang Li; Xiang-min Meng; Ru-yi Li; Ru Zhang; Zheng Zhang; Yi-feng Du

doi:10.4103/1673-5374.193236

摘要：Studieshave confirmed that low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation can decrease the activity of cortical neurons, and high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation can increase the excitability of cortical neurons. However, there are few studies concerning the use of different frequencies of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on the recovery of upper-limb motor function atfer cerebral infarction. We hypothesized that different frequencies of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in patients with cerebral infarction would produce different effects on the recovery of upper-limb motor function. hTis study enrolled 127 patients with upper-limb dysfunction during the subacute phase of cerebral infarction. hTese patients were randomly assigned to three groups. hTe low-frequency group comprised 42 patients who were treated with 1 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on the contralateral hemisphere primary motor cortex (M1). hTe high-frequency group comprised 43 patients who were treated with 10 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on ipsilateral M1. Finally, the sham group comprised 42 patients who were treated with 10 Hz of false stimulation on ipsilateral M1. A total of 135 seconds of stimulation was applied in the sham group and high-frequency group. At 2 weeks atfer treatment, cortical latency of motor-evoked potentials and central motor conduction time were signiifcantly lower compared with before treatment. Moreover, motor function scores were signiifcantly improved. hTe above indices for the low- and high-frequency groups were signiifcantly different compared with the sham group. However, there was no signiifcant difference between the low- and high-frequency groups. hTe results show that low- and high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation can similarly improve upper-limb motor function in patients with cerebral infarction.