Prospective Home-use Study on Non-invasive Neuromodulation Therapy for Essential Tremor.

Highlights: This prospective study is one of the largest clinical trials in essential tremor to date. Study findings suggest that individualized non-invasive neuromodulation therapy used repeatedly at home over three months results in safe and effective hand tremor reduction and improves quality of life for many essential tremor patients. Background: Two previous randomized, controlled, single-session trials demonstrated efficacy of non-invasive neuromodulation therapy targeting the median and radial nerves for reducing hand tremor. This current study evaluated efficacy and safety of the therapy over three months of repeated home use. Methods: This was a prospective, open-label, post-clearance, single-arm study with 263 patients enrolled across 26 sites. Patients were instructed to use the therapy twice daily for three months. Pre-specified co-primary endpoints were improvements on clinician-rated Tremor Research Group Essential Tremor Rating Assessment Scale (TETRAS) and patient-rated Bain & Findley Activities of Daily Living (BF-ADL) dominant hand scores. Other endpoints included improvement in the tremor power detected by an accelerometer on the therapeutic device, Clinical and Patient Global Impression scores (CGI-I, PGI-I), and Quality of Life in Essential Tremor (QUEST) survey. Results: 205 patients completed the study. The co-primary endpoints were met (p≪0.0001), with 62% (TETRAS) and 68% (BF-ADL) of 'severe' or 'moderate' patients improving to 'mild' or 'slight'. Clinicians (CGI-I) reported improvement in 68% of patients, 60% (PGI-I) of patients reported improvement, and QUEST improved (p = 0.0019). Wrist-worn accelerometer recordings before and after 21,806 therapy sessions showed that 92% of patients improved, and 54% of patients experienced ≥50% improvement in tremor power. Device-related adverse events (e.g., wrist discomfort, skin irritation, pain) occurred in 18% of patients. No device-related serious adverse events were reported. Discussion: This study suggests that non-invasive neuromodulation therapy used repeatedly at home over three months results in safe and effective hand tremor reduction in many essential tremor patients.

Targeting neurons in the gastrointestinal tract to treat Parkinson's disease.

BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease (PD) is associated with α-synuclein (αS) aggregation within the enteric nervous system (ENS) and constipation. Squalamine displaces proteins that are electrostatically bound to intracellular membranes and through this mechanism suppresses aggregation of αS monomers into neurotoxic oligomers. OBJECTIVE: We sought to evaluate the safety of ENT-01 oral tablets (a synthetic squalamine salt), its pharmacokinetics, and its effect on bowel function in PD patients with constipation. METHODS: In Stage 1, 10 patients received escalating single doses from 25 to 200 mg/day or maximum tolerated dose (MTD). In Stage 2, 34 patients received daily doses escalating from 75 to a maximum of 250 mg/day, a dose that induced change in bowel function or MTD, followed by a fixed dose for 7 days, and a 2-week washout. Primary efficacy endpoint was defined as an increase of 1 complete spontaneous bowel movement (CSBM)/week, or 3 CSBM/week over the baseline period, as defined by FDA guidelines for prokinetic agents. Safety was also assessed. RESULTS: Over 80% of patients achieved the primary efficacy endpoint, with the mean number of CSBM/week increasing from 1.2 at baseline to 3.6 during fixed dosing (p = 1.2 × 10-7). Common adverse events included nausea in 21/44 (47%) and diarrhea in 18/44 (40%) patients. Systemic absorption was <0.3%. CONCLUSIONS: Orally administered ENT-01 was safe and significantly improved bowel function in PD, suggesting that the ENS is not irreversibly damaged in PD. Minimal systemic absorption suggests that improvements result from local stimulation of the ENS. A double-blind, placebo-controlled study is now ongoing.

Five-months-postoperative neuropsychological outcome from a pilot prospective randomized clinical trial of thalamic deep brain stimulation for Tourette syndrome.

OBJECTIVE: Tourette syndrome (TS) is a neuropsychiatric disorder presenting with motor and/or sonic tics associated with frontostriatal dysfunction. This study provided pilot data of the neuropsychological safety of bilateral thalamic deep brain stimulation (DBS) to treat medication-refractory TS in adults. METHOD: This study used a repeated-measures design with pretest and 3-month follow-up from start of continuous bilateral DBS. Five male patients underwent DBS surgery for medically refractory TS. Repeated-measures ANOVA was used to evaluate for any change in neuropsychological test scores, employing a false discovery rate. Outcome measures included 14 neuropsychological tests assessing psychomotor speed, attention, memory, language, visuoconstructional, and executive functions, as well as subjective mood ratings of depression and anxiety. RESULTS: Average age was 28.2 years (SD = 7.5) with 12-17 years of education. Participants were disabled by tics, with a tic frequency of 50-80 per minute before surgery. At baseline, subjects' cognitive function was generally average, although mild deficits in sequencing and verbal fluency were present, as were clinically mild obsessive-compulsive symptoms. At 3 months of continuous DBS (5 months after implantation), 3 of 5 participants had clinical reductions in motor and sonic tics. Cognitive scores generally remained stable, but declines of moderate to large effect size (Cohen's d > 0.6) in verbal fluency, visual immediate memory, and reaction time were observed. Fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety, as well as fewer obsessions and compulsions, were reported after 3 months of continuous high-frequency DBS. CONCLUSIONS: Bilateral centromedian-parafascicular thalamic DBS for medically refractory TS shows promise for treatment of medically refractory TS without marked neuropsychological morbidity. Symptoms of depression and anxiety improved.

Clinically deployable Kinesia technology for automated tremor assessment.

The objective was to design, build, and assess Kinesia, a wireless system for automated assessment of Parkinson's disease (PD) tremor. The current standard in evaluating PD is the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), a qualitative ranking system typically completed during an office visit. Kinesia integrates accelerometers and gyroscopes in a compact patient-worn unit to capture kinematic movement disorder features. Objectively quantifying PD manifestations with increased time resolution should aid in evaluating efficacy of treatment protocols and improve patient management. In this study, PD subjects performed the tremor subset of the UPDRS motor section while wearing Kinesia. Quantitative kinematic features were processed and highly correlated to clinician scores for rest tremor (r(2) = 0.89), postural tremor (r(2) = 0.90), and kinetic tremor (r(2) = 0.69). The quantitative features were used to develop a mathematical model that predicted tremor severity scores for new data with low errors. Finally, PD subjects indicated high clinical acceptance.

Modeling video tic counts in a crossover trial of deep brain stimulation for Tourette syndrome.

A recent pilot crossover study of deep brain stimulation for Tourette syndrome involved the counting of motor and sonic tics from video recordings of patients. The evaluation of a five-minute video (divided into ten 30-second segments) in each of eight intervention states per patient was found to be very tedious and time-consuming. The present study sought to determine the statistical implications of reducing this data collection burden. To make maximal use of data from the small sample (n=5) pilot study, we fit linear mixed effects models to the tic count data. As suggested by an empirical examination of within-person correlations, a novel random effects covariance structure, which we refer to as a 'partitioned random effects model' was found to provide the best fit to the data. The best model for each tic type was then used to estimate relative efficiencies for specified data reductions. This analysis indicated that using a subset of five out of 10 segments would require only a 10% increase in sample size to maintain a specified power. Lastly, the bias of estimated treatment effects based on the reduced data collection was evaluated, and the particular five-segment subsets with the smallest estimated bias were determined.

Prospective randomized double-blind trial of bilateral thalamic deep brain stimulation in adults with Tourette syndrome.

OBJECT: The severity of Tourette syndrome (TS) typically peaks just before adolescence and diminishes afterward. In some patients, however, TS progresses into adulthood, and proves to be medically refractory. The authors conducted a prospective double-blind crossover trial of bilateral thalamic deep brain stimulation (DBS) in five adults with TS. METHODS: Bilateral thalamic electrodes were implanted. An independent programmer established optimal stimulator settings in a single session. Subjective and objective results were assessed in a double-blind randomized manner for 4 weeks, with each week spent in one of four states of unilateral or bilateral stimulation. Results were similarly assessed 3 months after unblinded bilateral stimulator activation while repeated open programming sessions were permitted. RESULTS: In the randomized phase of the trial, a statistically significant (p < 0.03, Friedman exact test) reduction in the modified Rush Video-Based Rating Scale score (primary outcome measure) was identified in the bilateral on state. Improvement was noted in motor and sonic tic counts as well as on the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale and TS Symptom List scores (secondary outcome measures). Benefit was persistent after 3 months of open stimulator programming. Quality of life indices were also improved. Three of five patients had marked improvement according to all primary and secondary outcome measures. CONCLUSIONS: Bilateral thalamic DBS appears to reduce tic frequency and severity in some patients with TS who have exhausted other available means of treatment.

Ketamine for refractory status epilepticus: a case of possible ketamine-induced neurotoxicity.

A 44-year-old man with treated neurosyphilis presented with subclinical status epilepticus (SE) refractory to intravenous high-dose lorazepam, phenytoin, and valproic acid over 4 days. Ketamine infusion was instituted after low-dose propofol sedation with gradual control of electrographic seizures over 72h. Reevaluation 3 months later revealed diffuse cerebellar and worsened cerebral atrophy, consistent with animal models of N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist-mediated neurotoxicity. Animal studies of prolonged ketamine therapy are required before widespread human use in SE.