Affiliations: Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System and the Harold Goodglass Boston University Aphasia Research Center, Department of Neurology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA | Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA | Institut Universitari de Neurorehabilitació Guttmann-UAB, Badalona, Spain
Note: [] Corresponding author: Paula I. Martin, PhD, Aphasia Research Center 12-A, VA Boston Healthcare System, 150 So. Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02130, USA. Tel.: +1 857 364 4029; Fax: +1 617 739 8926; E-mail: paulak@bu.edu
Abstract: Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate: 1) the feasibilty of administering a modified CILT (mCILT) treatment session immediately after TMS; and 2) if this combined therapy could improve naming and elicited propositional speech in chronic, nonfluent aphasia. Methods: Two chronic stroke patients with nonfluent aphasia (mild-moderate and severe) each received twenty minutes of rTMS to suppress the right pars triangularis, followed immediately by three hours of mCILT (5 days/week, 2 weeks). (Each patient had received TMS alone, 2–6 years prior.) Language evaluations were performed pre- TMS+mCILT, and post- at 1-2 months, and 6 or 16 months. Results: Both patients showed significant improvements in naming pictures, and elicited propositional speech at 1-2 months post- TMS+mCILT. The improved naming was still present at 6 months post- TMS+mCILT for P2; but not at 16 months post- TMS+mCILT for P1. Conclusions: It is feasible to administer mCILT for three hours immediately after a TMS session. It is unknown if the significant improvements in naming pictures, and elicited propositional speech were associated with the second series of TMS, or this first series of mCILT, or a combination of both. A larger, sham controlled clinical trial is warranted.
Keywords: TMS, speech therapy, constraint-induced language therapy, aphasia, stroke rehabilitation
