Effects of rTMS and tDCS on Motor Function in Stroke

April 23, 2020 updated by: Felipe Fregni, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital

Effects of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and Transcranial DC Stimulation on Motor Function in Stroke Patients

In this study the investigators aim to investigate the effects of two different types of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques -- repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on motor function in stroke. This is a cross-over study where subjects will receive 5 sessions of stimulation (each separated by 1 week) -- with either active tDCS and sham rTMS, sham tDCS and active rTMS or both sham tDCS and rTMS.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

14

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Massachusetts
      • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02114
        • Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 90 years (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion criteria:

(1) All subjects must be between the ages of 18-90.

Exclusion criteria:

  1. History of Major depression, as defined by Beck Depression scale 30;
  2. Any substantial decrease in alertness, language comprehension, or attention that might interfere with understanding instructions for motor testing;

  3. Contraindications to TMS

    • history of seizures
    • unexplained loss of consciousness
    • metal in the head
    • frequent or severe headaches or neck pain
    • implanted brain medical devices.

  4. Contraindications to tDCS

    • metal in the head
    • implanted brain medical devices
  5. Advanced liver, kidney, cardiac, or pulmonary disease;
  6. A terminal medical diagnosis consistent with survival < 1 year;
  7. Coexistent major neurological or psychiatric disease (to decrease number of confounders);
  8. A history of significant alcohol or drug abuse in the prior 6 months;
  9. Subjects may not be actively enrolled in a separate intervention study targeting stroke recovery and any other clinical trials;
  10. Subjects with global aphasia and deficits of comprehension
  11. Pregnancy. Female subjects of child bearing potential will be asked to take a pregnancy test. If the pregnancy test is positive, the subject may not enroll in the study.
  12. Use of neuropsychotropic medications [healthy subjects only]

Additional inclusion criteria for stroke subjects:

  1. First-time clinical ischemic or hemorrhagic cerebrovascular events - evidenced by a radiological (or physician's) report
  2. Weakness, defined as score of less than 55 (out of 66) on arm motor Fugl-Meyer (FM) scale
  3. Stroke onset >6 months prior to study enrollment .

Additional exclusion criteria for stroke subjects:

  1. Subjects may not have already received TMS and/or tDCS stimulation for stroke;
  2. History of epilepsy before stroke or episodes of seizures within the last six months;

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
  • Allocation: RANDOMIZED
  • Interventional Model: CROSSOVER
  • Masking: DOUBLE

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: Active low-frequency rTMS/sham tDCS
Subjects will have both the rTMS and tDCS on their scalp during the session, however only one will be active. For this arm, the rTMS will be active, low-frequency, and the tDCS will be sham. They will undergo only one session of this condition, and it will last 20 minutes.
Device: Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS)
Subjects will either undergo (1) active low-frequency rTMS (1Hz continuous), (2) active high-frequency rTMS (10Hz, 2 second trains with inter-train interval of 28 seconds) or (3) sham rTMS (using a sham coil). Each session will last 20 minutes and will be conducted at 100% of the motor threshold.
Other Names:
  • magnetic stimulation; Magstim
Device: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)
Subjects will either undergo (1) active anodal tDCS, (2) active cathodal tDCS or (3) sham tDCS. Each session will last 20 minutes and will be conducted using 1mA with 35^2 electrodes.
Other Names:
  • 1x1 low-intensity direct current stimulator; Soterix Medical
EXPERIMENTAL: Active high-frequency rTMS/sham tDCS
Subjects will have both the rTMS and tDCS on their scalp during the session, however only one will be active. For this arm, the rTMS will be active, high-frequency, and the tDCS will be sham. They will undergo only one session of this condition, and it will last 20 minutes.
Device: Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS)
Subjects will either undergo (1) active low-frequency rTMS (1Hz continuous), (2) active high-frequency rTMS (10Hz, 2 second trains with inter-train interval of 28 seconds) or (3) sham rTMS (using a sham coil). Each session will last 20 minutes and will be conducted at 100% of the motor threshold.
Other Names:
  • magnetic stimulation; Magstim
Device: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)
Subjects will either undergo (1) active anodal tDCS, (2) active cathodal tDCS or (3) sham tDCS. Each session will last 20 minutes and will be conducted using 1mA with 35^2 electrodes.
Other Names:
  • 1x1 low-intensity direct current stimulator; Soterix Medical
EXPERIMENTAL: Sham rTMS/active anodal tDCS
Subjects will have both the rTMS and tDCS on their scalp during the session, however only one will be active. For this arm, the tDCS will be active, anodal, and the TMS will be sham. They will undergo only one session of this condition, and it will last 20 minutes.
Device: Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS)
Subjects will either undergo (1) active low-frequency rTMS (1Hz continuous), (2) active high-frequency rTMS (10Hz, 2 second trains with inter-train interval of 28 seconds) or (3) sham rTMS (using a sham coil). Each session will last 20 minutes and will be conducted at 100% of the motor threshold.
Other Names:
  • magnetic stimulation; Magstim
Device: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)
Subjects will either undergo (1) active anodal tDCS, (2) active cathodal tDCS or (3) sham tDCS. Each session will last 20 minutes and will be conducted using 1mA with 35^2 electrodes.
Other Names:
  • 1x1 low-intensity direct current stimulator; Soterix Medical
EXPERIMENTAL: Sham rTMS/active cathodal tDCS
Subjects will have both the rTMS and tDCS on their scalp during the session, however only one will be active. For this arm, the tDCS will be active, cathodal, and the TMS will be sham. They will undergo only one session of this condition, and it will last 20 minutes.
Device: Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS)
Subjects will either undergo (1) active low-frequency rTMS (1Hz continuous), (2) active high-frequency rTMS (10Hz, 2 second trains with inter-train interval of 28 seconds) or (3) sham rTMS (using a sham coil). Each session will last 20 minutes and will be conducted at 100% of the motor threshold.
Other Names:
  • magnetic stimulation; Magstim
Device: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)
Subjects will either undergo (1) active anodal tDCS, (2) active cathodal tDCS or (3) sham tDCS. Each session will last 20 minutes and will be conducted using 1mA with 35^2 electrodes.
Other Names:
  • 1x1 low-intensity direct current stimulator; Soterix Medical
SHAM_COMPARATOR: Sham rTMS/Sham tDCS
Subjects will have both the rTMS and tDCS on their scalp during the session, and both interventions will be sham. They will undergo only one session of this condition, and it will last 20 minutes.
Device: Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS)
Subjects will either undergo (1) active low-frequency rTMS (1Hz continuous), (2) active high-frequency rTMS (10Hz, 2 second trains with inter-train interval of 28 seconds) or (3) sham rTMS (using a sham coil). Each session will last 20 minutes and will be conducted at 100% of the motor threshold.
Other Names:
  • magnetic stimulation; Magstim
Device: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)
Subjects will either undergo (1) active anodal tDCS, (2) active cathodal tDCS or (3) sham tDCS. Each session will last 20 minutes and will be conducted using 1mA with 35^2 electrodes.
Other Names:
  • 1x1 low-intensity direct current stimulator; Soterix Medical

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Changes in cortical excitability measures
Time Frame: Measured for approximately 6 weeks
We will measure cortical excitability using single- and paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) before and after each stimulation session. We will compare the measurements from before stimulation to after stimulation, in each scheduled session, as this study is measuring the effects of a single session of tDCS/rTMS.
Measured for approximately 6 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Changes in motor function
Time Frame: Measured for approximately 6 weeks
We will measure motor function using behavioral tasks (ex. purdue pegboard, jebsen taylor test, range of motion) both before and after the stimulation sessions. We will compare the measurements from before stimulation to after stimulation, in each scheduled session, as this study is measuring the effects of a single session of tDCS/rTMS.
Measured for approximately 6 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

May 1, 2011

Primary Completion (ACTUAL)

November 1, 2014

Study Completion (ACTUAL)

November 1, 2014

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 8, 2012

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 9, 2012

First Posted (ESTIMATE)

April 10, 2012

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ACTUAL)

April 24, 2020

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 23, 2020

Last Verified

April 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2010-p-001461

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Stroke

Clinical Trials on Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS)

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in Bahrain

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

Subscribe