ArticleFrontiers in neuroscience2025
A clinical case report on transcranial low-intensity focused ultrasound neuromodulation for central post-stroke pain.
Article in Frontiers in neuroscience, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Central post-stroke pain (CPSP) manifests as persistent or intermittent pain following cerebral infarction or hemorrhage and is described as "one of the most agonizing, disabling, and refractory pain syndromes." Its treatment represents a significant clinical challenge. In this case, we used transcranial low-intensity focused ultrasound (tLIFU), an emerging non-invasive neuromodulation approach distinct from pharmacological and traditional neuromodulation methods, to treat CPSP patients, achieving satisfactory outcomes. This approach may inspire new perspectives on innovative pain management. A 66-year-old male veteran suffered long-term CPSP, with unsatisfactory pain relief from previous paregoric interventions, including transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Blood oxygenation level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD-fMRI) revealed abnormal activity in a region of interest (ROI) that responded to analgesic medication adjustments. This ROI was anatomically consistent with the cingulum bundle. Given this finding, we used tLIFU to demonstrate deep stimulation of the ROI. Remarkable pain reduction was observed after 1 week of tLIFU neuromodulation, allowing for a slight tapering of the gabapentin dose. The analgesic effects of tLIFU were sustained throughout a 5-month follow-up period, with no adverse events reported. Since day 120, the patient has remained off analgesic medications, and at the 150-day follow-up, BOLD-fMRI revealed a normalized activity pattern in the region of interest (ROI). Additionally, significant clinical improvement was noted in the patient's emotional state. This case report highlights the potential of tLIFU technology to expand therapeutic options in clinical pain management. Exploratory research into the clinical efficacy and the underlying mechanisms of tLIFU in pain treatment may contribute to a deeper understanding of pain pathogenesis and support the development of novel therapeutic strategies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.