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Iacopino DG, Gagliardo C, Giugno A, Giammalva GR, Napoli A, Maugeri R, Graziano F, Valentino F, Cosentino G, D'Amelio M, Bartolotta TV, Catalano C, Fierro B, Midiri M, Lagalla R. Preliminary experience with a transcranial magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound surgery system integrated with a 1.5-T MRI unit in a series of patients with essential tremor and Parkinson's disease. Neurosurg Focus 2019; 44:E7. [PMID: 29385927 DOI: 10.3171/2017.11.focus17614] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Transcranial magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound surgery (tcMRgFUS) is one of the emerging noninvasive technologies for the treatment of neurological disorders such as essential tremor (ET), idiopathic asymmetrical tremor-dominant Parkinson's disease (PD), and neuropathic pain. In this clinical series the authors present the preliminary results achieved with the world's first tcMRgFUS system integrated with a 1.5-T MRI unit. METHODS The authors describe the results of tcMRgFUS in a sample of patients with ET and with PD who underwent the procedure during the period from January 2015 to September 2017. A monolateral ventralis intermedius nucleus (VIM) thalamic ablation was performed in both ET and PD patients. In all the tcMRgFUS treatments, a 1.5-T MRI scanner was used for both planning and monitoring the procedure. RESULTS During the study period, a total of 26 patients underwent tcMRgFUS thalamic ablation for different movement disorders. Among these patients, 18 were diagnosed with ET and 4 were affected by PD. All patients with PD were treated using tcMRgFUS thalamic ablation and all completed the procedure. Among the 18 patients with ET, 13 successfully underwent tcMRgFUS, 4 aborted the procedure during ultrasound delivery, and 1 did not undergo the tcMRgFUS procedure after stereotactic frame placement. Two patients with ET were not included in the results because of the short follow-up duration at the time of this study. A monolateral VIM thalamic ablation in both ET and PD patients was performed. All the enrolled patients were evaluated before the treatment and 2 days after, with a clinical control of the treatment effectiveness using the graphic items of the Fahn-Tolosa-Marin tremor rating scale. A global reevaluation was performed 3 months (17/22 patients) and 6 months (11/22 patients) after the treatment; the reevaluation consisted of clinical questionnaires, neurological tests, and video recordings of the tests. All the ET and PD treated patients who completed the procedure showed an immediate amelioration of tremor severity, with no intra- or posttreatment severe permanent side effects. CONCLUSIONS Although this study reports on a small number of patients with a short follow-up duration, the tcMRgFUS procedure using a 1.5-T MRI unit resulted in a safe and effective treatment option for motor symptoms in patients with ET and PD. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first clinical series in which thalamotomy was performed using tcMRgFUS integrated with a 1.5-T magnet.
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Affiliation(s)
- Domenico Gerardo Iacopino
- Unit of Neurosurgery, Department of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neuroscience, University of Palermo
| | - Cesare Gagliardo
- Section of Radiological Sciences, Department of Biopathology and Medical Biotechnologies, University of Palermo
| | - Antonella Giugno
- Unit of Neurosurgery, Department of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neuroscience, University of Palermo
| | - Giuseppe Roberto Giammalva
- Unit of Neurosurgery, Department of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neuroscience, University of Palermo
| | - Alessandro Napoli
- Radiology Section, Department of Radiological, Oncological and Anatomopathological Sciences, "Sapienza" University of Rome; and
| | - Rosario Maugeri
- Unit of Neurosurgery, Department of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neuroscience, University of Palermo
| | - Francesca Graziano
- Unit of Neurosurgery, Department of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neuroscience, University of Palermo
| | - Francesca Valentino
- Unit of Neurology, Department of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neuroscience, University of Palermo, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Cosentino
- Unit of Neurology, Department of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neuroscience, University of Palermo, Italy
| | - Marco D'Amelio
- Unit of Neurology, Department of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neuroscience, University of Palermo, Italy
| | - Tommaso Vincenzo Bartolotta
- Section of Radiological Sciences, Department of Biopathology and Medical Biotechnologies, University of Palermo
| | - Carlo Catalano
- Radiology Section, Department of Radiological, Oncological and Anatomopathological Sciences, "Sapienza" University of Rome; and
| | - Brigida Fierro
- Unit of Neurology, Department of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neuroscience, University of Palermo, Italy
| | - Massimo Midiri
- Section of Radiological Sciences, Department of Biopathology and Medical Biotechnologies, University of Palermo
| | - Roberto Lagalla
- Section of Radiological Sciences, Department of Biopathology and Medical Biotechnologies, University of Palermo
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