Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA.
Department of Psychiatry, Huntsman Mental Health Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA.
J Med Case Rep. 2023 Oct 28;17(1):449. doi: 10.1186/s13256-023-04194-4.
BACKGROUND: Severe forms of depression have been linked to hyperactivity of the subcallosal cingulate cortex. The ability to stimulate the subcallosal cingulate cortex or associated circuits noninvasively and directly would maximize the number of patients who could receive treatment. To this end, we have developed an ultrasound-based device for effective noninvasive modulation of deep brain circuits. Here we describe an application of this tool to an individual with treatment-resistant depression. CASE PRESENTATION: A 30-year-old Caucasian woman with severe treatment-resistant non-psychotic depression was recruited into a clinical study approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Utah. The patient had a history of electroconvulsive therapy with full remission but without sustained benefit. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to coregister the ultrasound device to the subject's brain anatomy and to evaluate neural responses to stimulation. Brief, 30-millisecond pulses of low-intensity ultrasound delivered into the subcallosal cingulate cortex target every 4 seconds caused a robust decrease in functional magnetic resonance imaging blood-oxygen-level-dependent activity within the target. Following repeated stimulation of three anterior cingulate targets, the patient's depressive symptoms resolved within 24 hours of the stimulation. The patient remained in remission for at least 44 days afterwards. CONCLUSIONS: This case illustrates the potential for ultrasonic neuromodulation to precisely engage deep neural circuits and to trigger a durable therapeutic reset of those circuits. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT05301036. Registered 29 March 2022, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05301036.
背景:严重形式的抑郁症与扣带回下脚皮质的过度活跃有关。非侵入性、直接刺激扣带回下脚皮质或相关回路的能力将最大限度地增加接受治疗的患者数量。为此,我们开发了一种基于超声的设备,用于有效非侵入性调节深部脑回路。在这里,我们描述了该工具在一名治疗抵抗性抑郁症患者中的应用。
病例介绍:一名 30 岁的白人女性患有严重的治疗抵抗性非精神病性抑郁症,被招募参加了犹他大学机构审查委员会批准的临床研究。该患者曾接受过电休克治疗,完全缓解,但无持续获益。磁共振成像用于将超声设备与受检者的大脑解剖结构进行配准,并评估刺激后的神经反应。将低强度超声脉冲短暂(30 毫秒)、每 4 秒传递一次到扣带回下脚皮质目标,可引起目标内功能磁共振成像血氧水平依赖性活动的强烈减少。在重复刺激三个前扣带回目标后,患者的抑郁症状在刺激后 24 小时内得到缓解。之后患者至少持续缓解了 44 天。
结论:该病例说明了超声神经调节有可能精确地参与深部神经网络,并触发这些网络的持久治疗重置。
试验注册:ClinicalTrials.gov,NCT05301036。注册于 2022 年 3 月 29 日,https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05301036。
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