AUTHOR=Bai Yang , Xia Xiaoyu , Kang Jiannan , Yin Xiaoxiao , Yang Yi , He Jianghong , Li Xiaoli 

TITLE=Evaluating the Effect of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on Disorders of Consciousness by Using TMS-EEG

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neuroscience

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2016

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnins.2016.00473

DOI=10.3389/fnins.2016.00473

ISSN=1662-453X

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background:</bold> The modulation efficacy of Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) on consciousness improvement of patient with disorder of consciousness (DOC) has not been definitely confirmed.</p><p><bold>Objective:</bold> This study proposes TMS-EEG to assess effects of repetitive TMS (rTMS) on brain modulation of DOC.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> Twenty sessions of 10 Hz rTMS were applied over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for a patient with DOC. Measures of Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R) score, TMS-evoked potential (TEP), perturbation complexity index (PCI), and global mean field power (GMFP) were used to evaluate the consciousness level of the patient at three intervals: before the rTMS protocol (T0), immediately after one session rTMS (T1), and immediately after 20 sessions (T2).</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> It was found that the patient was diagnosed of a minimally conscious state minus (MCS-) by means of CRS-R at the interval of T0, however the TEP and PCI indicated the patient was vegetative state (VS). At the interval of T1, there was not any clinical behavioral improvement in CRS-R, but we could find significant changes in TEP, PCI, and GMFP. At the interval of T2 there was a significant increase of consciousness level according by CRS-R score, PCI value, TEP, and GMFP after 20 sessions of 10 Hz rTMS on the patient with DOC.</p><p><bold>Conclusions:</bold> We demonstrated that TMS-EEG might be an efficient assessment tool for evaluating rTMS protocol therapeutic efficiency in DOC.</p>