Department of Neurology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, 610041 Chengdu, Sichuan, PR China.
Med Hypotheses. 2011 Mar;76(3):381-3. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2010.10.046. Epub 2010 Dec 8.
Epilepsy threatens the health of more than 50 million people all over the world. Many patients with epilepsy, especially temporal lobe epilepsy, are resistant to the current therapeutic drugs. Different strategies for these patients are therefore necessary to achieve maximum therapeutic effect. Neuromodulation techniques have gained widespread attention due to their therapeutic utility in managing numerous neurological/psychiatric diseases. Transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) is an emerging non-invasive neurostimulation tool that can both excite and reversibly suppress neuronal activity effectively within the brain. TUS can transmit through the skull with millimeter spatial resolutions. In the current work, we propose that TUS may be a promising alternative therapy for the suppression of seizure activity in epilepsy patients, minimizing poor post-seizure outcomes and improving life quality. Further investigation into stimulation parameters, including waveform parameters such as tone burst duration (pulse length), pulse repetition frequency, exposure time, acoustic frequency, and the acoustic intensity of TUS, is needed to verify the efficacy of this intervention in epilepsy.
癫痫影响着全世界超过 5000 万人的健康。许多癫痫患者，特别是颞叶癫痫患者，对目前的治疗药物有抗药性。因此，需要针对这些患者采取不同的策略，以达到最大的治疗效果。神经调节技术因其在治疗多种神经/精神疾病方面的治疗效果而受到广泛关注。经颅超声刺激（TUS）是一种新兴的非侵入性神经刺激工具，可在大脑内有效激发和可逆性抑制神经元活动。TUS 可以通过颅骨进行毫米级空间分辨率的传输。在目前的工作中，我们提出 TUS 可能是癫痫患者抑制癫痫发作活动的一种有前途的替代疗法，可以最小化癫痫发作后的不良后果，提高生活质量。需要进一步研究刺激参数，包括 TUS 的声波参数，如音波持续时间（脉冲长度）、脉冲重复频率、暴露时间、声波频率和声波强度，以验证这种干预措施在癫痫中的疗效。
