Junyan Feng, Lin Du, Ling Shan, Bing Wang, Honghua Li, Wei Wang and Feiyong Jia
Background: Cerebral palsy (CP) is one of the major diseases that lead to severe disability and seriously
impacts the quality of life of children. Infra-low frequency transcranial magnetic stimulation (ILF-TMS) is a new
technique of noninvasive brain stimulation that exactly regulates the power of specific neurotransmitters through a
special magnetic field. Our study was in order to investigate the efficacy of ILF-TMS treatment in children with
spastic cerebral palsy.
Methods: 113 spastic cerebral palsic children were randomly divided into two groups: conventional rehabilitation
group and ILF-TMS treatment group, Healthy control group was established at the same time. In conventional
rehabilitaion group, children were treated with conventional rehabilitation treatment; In ILF-TMS treatment group
were treated with ILF-TMS in addition to conventional rehabilitation treatment. Neurotransmitter in the brain was
recorded with encephalofluctuograph (EFG) before and after ILF-TMS treatment. Gross Motor Function Measure
(GMFM), Fine Motor Function Measure (FMFM) and Gesell development scale (GDS) were used to
comprehensively evaluate the motor function in children with spastic cerebral palsy.
Results: The results showed that the relative power of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in spastic cerebral palsy was
lower than that in healthy controls and was increased significantly after ILF-TMS treatment for 3 months. The relative
power of glutamate (Glu) in spastic cerebral palsy was higher than that in healthy controls and was reduced
significantly after ILF-TMS treatment for 3 months. After 3 months training period there was significant improvements
on the GMFM (dimension B, dimension C and dimension D), FMFM (dimension A and dimension B) and GDS (gross
motor DA and gross motor DQ) in the ILF-TMS treatment group when compared to conventional rehabilitation group.
Conclusions: These findings indicate that GMFM is a sensitive indicator to assess the treatment efficacy in
children with spastic cerebral palsy and ILF-TMS treatment can improve the motor function through regulating
neurotransmitters in brain.