Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, continue to find success through ultrasound to “start” the brains of people trapped in a minimally conscious state. In a report this month, they detail two patients with chronic and severe brain injuries who experienced improvements in their awareness of the outside world after undergoing treatment. Now scientists have more hope about the future of ultrasound in these difficult cases.
In 2016, California resident Bradley Crehan was hit by a car that caused a serious brain injury. After the surgery, Crehan went into a medically induced coma to help him recover. But Crehan showed few signs of consciousness after being awakened and was largely unable to communicate with others. It was then donated an experimental treatment calledintensity-centered ultrasound (LIFU) by UCLA scientists.
The treatment involved ultrasound pulses aimed at the thalamus of the brain — a region that helps us coordinate our motor and sensory functions and is thought to play a key role in consciousness — for five minutes, hoping to awaken an activity that tends to to be inactive during coma. One day after treatment, Crehan began to show signs of recovery and he did ais able to recognize and reach objects. Days later, he was able to answer blinking questions. And after four months, sooner than doctors had predicted, he was fully aware and could get out of the hospital, although he would still need ongoing physical therapy and rehabilitation.
As incredible as Crehan’s recovery was, it is clear that ultrasound therapy may not be the same. cause. People who spontaneously recover from a coma-like state are not unknown, especially in the first days and weeks after starting. It was possible that the technique was simply a red herring and that Crehan had woken up regardless of what the doctors were doing.
A la new report, published this month, in the journal Brain Stimulation, the authors say that now You have more evidence that ultrasound can help people stagger to the brink of consciousness.
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They used the technique in three patients living with chronic brain injuries that had left them in a conscious minimum state for more than one year. In one patient, ultrasound did not appear to improve their function. But in the other two, doctors saw an improvement a few days after the first of two treatments. A patient: a 56-year-old man who had suffered one stroke: was able to answer certain commands, answer questions about yes or no and recognize family members in a photo. The other — a 50-year-old woman who suffered a cardiac arrest — could now recognize objects and communicate with others.
“What is remarkable is that both showed significant responses within days of the intervention,” UCLA study author and psychologist Martin Monti said in a statement. released by the university. “This is what we expected, but it’s impressive to see it with your own eyes. Seeing two of our three patients who had been in a chronic illness improves very significantly a few days after treatment is an extremely promising result.
Because patients with chronic coma are much less likely to recover spontaneously than patients in acute coma, researchers are more confident. this ultrasound made the difference here. It is important to note that no safety issues were noticed either, as the vital signs of the patients were maintained throughout the treatment.
Unfortunately, the treatment of these patients did not lead to the same amazing recovery that Crehan experimented. The 50-year-old woman continued to have improved consciousness months later, but she he was still considered minimally conscious, while the 56-year-old man’s condition receded to his baseline at the time of a follow-up visit three months later. It is likely that regaining people’s consciousness will continue to be a difficult and impossible task in many cases, even if this technique works.
However, for the families of these patients, a certain level of recovered consciousness will even be worthwhile, and there may be ways to improve the effectiveness of these similar brain stimulation techniques. they are studying. For now, UCLA scientists they continue their research with ultrasound and hope to soon conduct clinical trials with a larger group of patients. They also plan to study exactly how this technique alters the brain.