Short-Term Tinnitus Suppression With Electric-Field Guided rTMS for Individualizing rTMS Treatment: A Technical Feasibility Report.

Background

Past research highlighted the benefits of personalized repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for the treatment of chronic subjective tinnitus. Objective/Hypothesis: The objective was to investigate the feasibility of rTMS personalization by identifying individually optimal stimulation parameters in test sessions. Particularly, effectiveness and retest-reliability of different stimulation parameters were examined.

Methods

Via electric-field guided rTMS, five patients were stimulated with different frequencies on three positions of the left and right superior temporal gyrus on 2 separate days. After each stimulation, the patients had to evaluate tinnitus loudness and discomfort of the used protocol.

Results

Individualization of rTMS was possible in all five patients. Significant lower tinnitus loudness was found for 1 Hz stimulation. Positive correlations between 2 days were observed for hemisphere (left, right), position (mSTG, pSTG), and frequency (1, 10, 20 Hz). High-frequency stimulation produced high discomfort.

Conclusion

Personalization of rTMS is considered as feasible. Consistency of parameter-specific tinnitus suppression is demonstrated.