Parkinson’s disease patients experience significant reduction in symptoms with non-surgical focused ultrasound treatment
Patients with Parkinson’s disease achieved a significant improvement in their tremors, mobility, and other physical symptoms after having a minimally invasive procedure involving focused ultrasound, according to a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The clinical trial was led by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and involved 94 Parkinson’s disease patients who were randomly assigned to undergo focused ultrasound to ablate a targeted region on one side of the brain or to have a sham procedure. Nearly 70 percent of patients in the treatment group were considered successful responders to treatment after three months of follow-up, compared to 32 percent in the control group who had an inactive procedure without focused ultrasound.
Two-thirds of those who responded initially to the focused ultrasound treatment continued to have a successful response from the treatment a year later.
