Benussi Alberto, Dell'Era Valentina, Cosseddu Maura, Cantoni Valentina, Cotelli Maria Sofia, Cotelli Maria, Manenti Rosa, Benussi Luisa, Brattini Chiara, Alberici Antonella, Borroni Barbara
Neurology Unit Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences University of Brescia Brescia Italy.
Neurology Unit Spedali Civili Hospital Brescia Italy.
Alzheimers Dement (N Y). 2020 May 27;6(1):e12033. doi: 10.1002/trc2.12033. eCollection 2020.
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a progressive disease for which no curative treatment is currently available. We aimed to determine whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can modulate intracortical connectivity and improve cognition in symptomatic FTD patients and presymptomatic FTD subjects.
We performed a double-blind, randomized, sham-controlled trial with anodal tDCS or sham stimulation over the left prefrontal cortex in 70 participants (15 presymptomatic and 55 symptomatic FTD).
We observed a significant increase of intracortical connectivity (short interval intracortical inhibition and facilitation) and improvement in clinical scores and behavioral disturbances in both symptomatic FTD patients and presymptomatic carriers after real tDCS but not after sham stimulation.
A 2-weeks' treatment with anodal left prefrontal tDCS improves symptoms and restores intracortical inhibitory and excitatory circuits in both symptomatic FTD patients and presymptomatic carriers. tDCS might represent a promising future therapeutic and rehabilitative approach in patients with FTD.
额颞叶痴呆（FTD）是一种目前尚无治愈性治疗方法的进行性疾病。我们旨在确定经颅直流电刺激（tDCS）是否能调节有症状的FTD患者和症状前FTD受试者的皮质内连接并改善认知。
我们进行了一项双盲、随机、假刺激对照试验，对70名参与者（15名症状前和55名有症状的FTD患者）的左侧前额叶皮质进行阳极tDCS或假刺激。
我们观察到，在接受真正的tDCS后，有症状的FTD患者和症状前携带者的皮质内连接（短间隔皮质内抑制和易化）显著增加，临床评分和行为障碍得到改善，但假刺激后未出现这种情况。
对左侧前额叶进行为期2周的阳极tDCS治疗可改善症状，并恢复有症状的FTD患者和症状前携带者的皮质内抑制和兴奋回路。tDCS可能是FTD患者未来一种有前景的治疗和康复方法。
