Strong magnetic fields applied to the head can help stroke patients whose movements are impaired, researchers report.

The procedure is called repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, or rTMS, and is applied on the side opposite the area of the brain affected by the stroke.

“Cortical stimulation is a therapy that might help stroke recovery and therefore should be further explored in larger studies,” Dr. Felipe Fregni from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, told Reuters Health.

As reported in the medical journal Stroke, Fregni and colleagues studied how well repeated consecutive sessions of low-frequency rTMS worked in 15 patients who had a stroke more than a year previously and were left with mild-to-moderate movement deficits.

After five days, motor function improved significantly in the ten patients treated with rTMS, the team reports, compared with the five patients treated with sham rTMS. The improvements in motor function persisted for two weeks after treatment, the results indicate.

Magnetic stimulation was not associated with mental changes, and patients tolerated the treatment well.

Fregni is currently “planning a study to evaluate whether rTMS would have similar beneficial effects in patients with severe motor deficits,” as well as another study to evaluate the effects of rTMS combined with physical therapy.

SOURCE: Stroke, August 2006.