Researchers at the University of Virginia (UVA) are
starting the first clinical trial in the world using focused ultrasound to
treat patients with epilepsy. The study, supported by the Focused Ultrasound
Foundation in collaboration with the Epilepsy Foundation, will assess the
feasibility, safety and initial effectiveness of focused ultrasound to
non-invasively destroy (ablate) diseased brain tissue that causes seizures.
The study is now recruiting up to 15 adult patients
with a range of rare deep brain lesions that produce debilitating seizures that
often do not respond to medications. It
is expected that most patients in the study will have benign tumors in the
hypothalamus, which can lead to frequent seizures with outbursts of spontaneous
laughing, giggling, crying or grunting; developmental delays and/or precocious
puberty. The disorder can progress as patients age, leading to increased
cognitive decline and severe behavior problems.
Current options for patients whose seizures do not
respond to medication include surgery or laser thermal ablation, both which may
involve multiple risks or complications, such as damage to normal brain,
infection or hemorrhage. The only
currently available non-invasive method is radiosurgery with the gamma knife,
which may take months to show effect, is not image guided and involves risks of
complications from radiation.
“Intractable epilepsy, especially this type, can be
devastating and existing therapies have risks and are not uniformly effective,
so many patients are in desperate need of better therapies,” says principal
investigator Nathan Fountain, MD, professor of neurology at UVA. “If we are
successful in destroying the lesions without complications, then this will be
an important step on the path toward developing focused ultrasound to enable
patients to have freedom from seizures without the risks of open surgery.”
Read more:
 |
| Targeted drugs at a nano-scale |
 |
| Transcranial HIFU therapy for brain tumor |
 |
| Your Health Navigator |
No comments:
Post a Comment