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Lookup NU author(s): Katrin Bangel, Dr Albert Lim, Dr Alasdair Blain, Dr Yi NgORCiD, Amy Winder, Joe Bulmer, Professor Grainne Gorman, Professor Mark BakerORCiD, Professor Bobby McFarlandORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© The Author(s) 2024. Background: Focal epilepsy is common in children and adults with mitochondrial disease. Seizures are often refractory to pharmacological treatment and, in this patient group, frequently evolve to refractory focal status epilepticus (also known as epilepsia partialis continua). Where this occurs, the long-term prognosis is poor. Transcranial DC stimulation (tDCS) is a promising, non-invasive, adjunctive treatment alternative to common surgical procedures. Limited recruitment of study participants with this rare disease and the ethical challenges of administering a treatment to one group and not another, while maintaining strict methodological rigour can pose challenges to the design of a clinical study. Method: We designed the first delayed start, double-blinded, sham-controlled study to evaluate the efficacy of tDCS as an adjunctive treatment for focal epilepsy. We will include participants with a genetically confirmed diagnosis of mitochondrial disease with drug-resistant focal epilepsy aged ≥ 2 years, aiming to collect 30 episodes of focal status epilepticus, each treated for a maximum period of 14 days. The early start intervention arm will receive tDCS from day 1. The delayed start intervention arm will receive sham stimulation until crossover on day 3. Our primary endpoint is a greater than 50% reduction from baseline (on day 0) in seizure frequency assessed by 3x daily reporting, accelerometery, and video monitoring. Changes in the underlying epileptogenic focus within the brain related to the tDCS intervention will be assessed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and/or electroencephalography (EEG). Discussion: Study results in favour of treatment efficacy would support development of tDCS into a mainstream treatment option for focal epileptic seizures related to mitochondrial disease. Trials registration: ISRCTN: 18,241,112; registered on 16/11/2021.
Author(s): Bangel KA, Lim AZ, Blain A, Ng YS, Winder A, Bulmer J, Gorman G, Baker M, McFarland R
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: BMC Neurology
Year: 2024
Volume: 24
Online publication date: 22/10/2024
Acceptance date: 07/10/2024
Date deposited: 06/11/2024
ISSN (electronic): 1471-2377
Publisher: BioMed Central Ltd
URL: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12883-024-03907-6
DOI: 10.1186/s12883-024-03907-6
Data Access Statement: No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.
PubMed id: 39438822
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