Drake Center has a track record of innovative medical research.
After recently signing an agreement with Helsinki-based medical device company, Nexstim Oy, Drake will expand its stroke research capacity to include a look into the brave new world of Navigated Brain Simulation (NBS).
Nexstim has created an NBS device, which Drake will use in a study to establish how the brain's potential to send signals to a stroke patient's muscles may help doctors better diagnose and prescribe suitable post-stroke treatment.
“We see enormous potential for the use of Navigated Brain Stimulation in the field of neuro-rehabilitation,” says Kari Dunning, PhD, director of research at Drake Center and assistant professor of rehabilitation sciences at UC’s College of Allied Health Sciences.
This NBS device essentially "gives us a picture of what's still working and what's not" in a stroke patient's brain, Dunning explains.
In order to map out this brain terrain, the NBS device lightly stimulates targeted regions of the brain's cortex while concurrently gauging the effect this stimulation has on the central nervous system and peripheral nerves associated with movement.
Doctors stimulate the brain via a small electromagnetic coil, which they move over the head. A standard MRI brain scan is loaded into the device, which allows them to pinpoint the spots to stimulate with great precision.
"Nexstim offers us a truly innovative non-invasive technology" Dunning says.
It certainly does.
Patients having the procedure done are required to no more than relax in a reclining chair and wear a special pair of optically-tracked glasses. The whole process takes less than an hour.
Researchers in Europe and Asia have been experimenting with the Nexstim NBS device for five years, but Drake's effort will be the first inpatient rehabilitation hospital to give it a test drive in a clinical research setting. At present the only other American research labs with the device are the National Institutes of Health and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, of Harvard Medical School.
“Drake Center and its association with the University of Cincinnati College of Allied Health Sciences provides a unique setting and interdisciplinary approach to research the effectiveness of this device," says Jukka-Pekka Särkkä, managing director of Nexstim.
Although the NBS device is not yet approved by the FDA, Drake's research is an important step toward potentially taking it from the lab to the clinic.
Writer: Jonathan DeHart
Source: University of Cincinnati, Nexstim Oy
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