Professor Ren Liankun's team of Brain Stimulation published the latest research online: the first time to propose a new strategy for the treatment of epilepsy in children with BECTS

Aiming at the most common type of BECTS epilepsy in children, Ren Liankun's research group from the Epilepsy Team of Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University has created a new non-invasive and non-drug-controlled treatment program internationally through proof-of-concept research
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In April 2022, Ren Liankun's research group from the Epilepsy Team of Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University published a research paper entitled "Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to Treat Benign Epilepsy with Centrotemporal Spikes" in Brain Stimulation, a classic authoritative journal in the field of international neuromodulation.
One of a series of innovative work in the field of epilepsy
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For the most common benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS) in children, or benign Rolando epilepsy in children, this study first proposed and preliminarily validated a novel non-invasive non-drug modulating treatment regimen, the core of which is to reduce the brain Abnormal excitability of the local cortex, which in turn reduces seizures and improves behavioral and cognitive problems
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Research introduction BECTS is the most common type of epilepsy in children, accounting for about 20% of childhood epilepsy.
It has benign characteristics of self-healing tendency before puberty
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However, at the peak of the disease in childhood, even if the seizures are rare, some children have problems such as hyperactivity, attention deficit, language development, learning difficulties, etc.
In particular, a small number of children have frequent seizures and even BECTS variants.

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The current international treatment norms for BECTS lack effective intervention recommendations for common behavioral and cognitive problems
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For children with frequent seizures or even BECTS variant, it is controversial whether antiepileptic drugs can effectively inhibit the characteristic discharge of BECTS and improve symptoms.
Even immunotherapy such as hormones and gamma globulin have to be tried, but the effect is uncertain
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In response to the above problems, in clinical work, based on the understanding of brain electrophysiology, researchers realized that a large number of epileptic discharges in the centrotemporal region of children with BECTS reflect abnormally increased local cortical excitability, an essential feature that leads to all clinical problems the root
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Based on this, considering that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), as a non-invasive treatment method, has been successfully applied in a variety of neurological and psychiatric diseases, it is proposed to use low-frequency rTMS to reduce local cortical excitability to treat children with BECTS.
Theoretical hypothesis, and the first registered clinical trial in the world
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MAIN RESULTS: Due to the epidemic, this study reported in Letter format the 4 children with BECTS observed in the pilot trial
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In the first 3 months of treatment, each person had seizures per month on average.
Based on magnetoencephalography, the location of dense discharge dipoles was accurately traced as the individualized control target.
Under navigation conditions, after 2 weeks of bilateral treatment with low-frequency rTMS, all The seizures disappeared within 3 months, and 2 cases disappeared within half a year, indicating that rTMS treatment has a significant effect on reducing BECTS seizures
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At the same time, the comparison of EEG examinations before and after rTMS treatment showed that the disappearance of epileptic seizures was accompanied by the reduction of epileptic discharges, and the children’s behavioral problems such as inattention and hyperactivity were also improved simultaneously, and the treatment effect was maintained for at least 3 month
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The treatment was well tolerated without any adverse effects
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Conclusion Therefore, for the most common type of BECTS epilepsy in children, the research group has created a new non-invasive and non-drug-controlled treatment program internationally through proof-of-concept research, which can not only effectively reduce epileptic seizures, but also treat a large number of children.
Common problems such as hyperactivity and inattention also have potential clinical intervention significance
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Source: Public Account of "Department of Neurology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University"