The number of chronic cerebral ischemia patients for the past 10 years were doubled inUkraine. One of the main manifestations of chronic cerebral ischemia are cognitive impairment but we found only a few reports on the application of transcranial magnetic stimulation for cognitive disorders correction in chronic cerebral ischemia patients.
Objective: To study the dynamics of cognitive disorders under the influence of transcranial magnetic stimulation in patients with chronic cerebral ischemia.
Materials and methods. The study involved 62 patients aged 46–72 years, male — 27, female — 35: 32 patients underwent 10 sessions by 10 min of low-intensity high-frequency (0.3 T, 20 Hz) stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex left, 30 patients received a similar course of high-intensity low-frequency (1.6 T, 1 Hz) stimulation. Sessions of transcranial magnetic stimulation was performed on the machine Neuro-MS/D production of “Neurosoft”. Cognitive functions studied using test MMSE.
Results. In the first group before the course of stimulating cognitive impairments were absent in 3 patients, minor disorders were in 17, mild ones — 12, disturbances to the degree of dementia were absent. After completing the course the improvement of cognitive function was observed in 14 patients — 9 of the subgroup with minor impairment and 5 with moderate impairment. In the second group there were no cognitive impairment before the start of the course of stimulation in 2 patients, the minor disturbances were in 16, moderate — in 12, there were no disturbances to the degree of dementia. After stimulating course cognitive function improved in 8 patients — in 6 of the subgroup with minor disorders and 2 of the subgroup with moderate impairment. In addition, the use of low-level high-frequency stimulation showed an increase in the number of correct responses to 8.9 % (from 24.1 to 26.8 points), and after a course of high-intensity low-frequency stimulation — by 5.4 % (from 23.7 to 25.3 points).
Conclusions. Transcranial magnetic stimulation has a positive effect on the cognitive function in patients with chronic cerebral ischemia. The application of low-level high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation has more expressive effect on cognitive impairment.