Abstract
Purpose: To study the effects of sequential excitatory and inhibitory theta burst stimulation (TBS) on cortical excitability in patients with subacute ischaemic stroke.Methods: Fifteen patients with first-ever middle cerebral artery ischaemic stroke within last three months were subjected to intermittent TBS over the hand area (M1) of the stroke hemisphere (iTBS(SH)) followed by continuous TBS over the intact hemisphere M1 (cTBS(IH)). The study measured motor evoked potential (MEP) amplitude, resting motor threshold (RMT) and contralateral cortical silent period (cCSP) at baseline and after 7 minutes of each TBS session.Results: The mean age of the patients was 62.4 8.0 years. The absolute changes in baseline motor physiological parameters were significantly greater after cTBS(IH) than after iTBS(SH) (p = 0.001). Following iTBS(SH), there was a significant decrease in mean RMT (7.4%; p < 0.001). Following cTBS(IH), there was further 18.3% increase in mean MEP amplitude and decrease in mean RMT (4.7%; p < 0.001) and cCSP (5.6%; p < 0.001) of the stroke hemisphere. Similar changes of smaller magnitude were noted in 12 age-matched controls.Conclusions: The results indicate that combining iTBS(SH) and cTBS(IH) can have additive effect in increasing cortical excitability in subacute ischaemic patients with stroke.