Correlation between duration of illness in Parkinsonian patients and their clinical improvement after receiving rTMS

Introduction: Parkinsonism is a group of disorders characterized by bradykinesia, tremors, rigidity, postural instability and other non-motor manifestations. It includes many types, the most common among them is Parkinson's disease (PD) that affects about 9 million people worldwide. Treatment of parkinsonism can be divided into: Medical treatment which is considered the first line and surgical treatment. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive safe device that causes stimulation of targeted brain cortical areas. It's used in many neuropsychiatric diseases including trails in parkinsonian disorders. Aim and Objectives: This study aims to investigate if there's a relation between the illness duration and clinical improvement after repetitive TMS. Method: our study was held in Minia university hospital on 35 parkinsonian patients with specific inclusion criteria. They received 10 successive high frequency rTMS sessions and were assessed by Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). Results: Mean age of patients was 58.74 and male: female ratio: 24: 11. Range of duration of illness was 1:16 years. Conclusion: Our study concluded that improvement appeared after receiving TMS using UPDRS is correlated with the illness duration in Parkinsonian patients.