Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for the treatment of cognitive impairment in frontotemporal dementia: an open-label pilot study

Figures & data

Table 1 Demographic and clinical data of the recruited patients

Gender	Age (years)	Education (years)	Diagnosis	Disease duration (years)	MoCA at baseline	HDRS at baseline
M	58	17	bvFTD	2	23	4
F	53	17	bvFTD	5	21	24
F	64	17	bvFTD	5	20	13
F	72	21	bvFTD	2	18	0
M	68	17	bvFTD	1	23	5
M	43	13	bvFTD	3	25	14
F	64	12	bvFTD	2	12	13
M	65	17	bvFTD	6	26	0
F	70	13	nfvPPA	2	9	4
F	48	14	SV-PPA	1	17	0
F	74	10	bvFTD	7	18	0
Mean (n=7 F)	61.7	15.3		3.3	19.3	7
SD (n=4 M)	10.1	3.1		2.1	5.3	7.9

Abbreviations: M, male; F, female; MoCA, Montreal Cognitive Assessment; HDRS, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale; bvFTD, behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia; nfvPPA, nonfluent/agrammatic variant primary progressive aphasia; SD, standard deviation; SV-PPA, semantic variant-primary progressive aphasia.

Table 2 Results of particular tests before and after rTMS

Test	Before rTMS		After rTMS		T	p-value
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
CGI-I	4.0	1.7	2.8	0.6	3	0.934
Domains of MoCA visuospatial/executive	2.8	1.3	3.6	1.1	0	0.018*
Naming	2.4	1.0	2.4	0.9	5	1.000
Attention	4.0	2.4	4.0	1.8	18	1.000
Language	1.5	1.1	1.9	1.3	0	0.109
Abstraction	1.0	0.8	1.5	0.7	0	0.043*
Delayed recall	1.9	2.0	2.0	2.0	6	0.686
Orientation	5.5	1.2	5.5	1.2	1.5	1.000
MoCA total score	19.3	5.3	21.1	5.8	3	0.013*
D-CAT
Time	88.6	20.7	85.1	19.4	22	0.328
Omissions	6.1	4.0	4.7	3.7	7.5	0.023*
LCT
Time	79.4	13.1	73.8	13.3	9	0.033*
Omissions	7.8	7.7	3.9	4.3	3	0.008*
Stroop reading time	27.4	8.6	25.7	8.5	8	0.047*
Stroop color naming time	43.2	21.5	43.7	28.3	20.5	0.476
Errors	3.1	4.2	1.1	2.0	0	0.028*
Stroop interference time	97.1	58.2	113.8	79.1	11	0.093
Errors	7.5	11.7	5.0	6.2	5	0.069
FAB	12.1	4.5	13.2	4.1	10	0.074
VFT
Formal fluency	7.5	5.3	9.3	6.1	4	0.091
Semantic fluency	11.5	7.1	12.0	6.1	24.5	0.450
GDS	4.8	4.2	4.8	4.1	22.5	1.000
HDRS	7.0	7.9	3.8	4.3	8	0.161
FBI	33.6	13.4	26.2	12.3	0	0.005*

Note:

* Significant difference (p<0.05).

Abbreviations: rTMS, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation; SD, standard deviation; T, test value; CGI-I, Clinical Global Impression-Improvement; MoCA, Montreal Cognitive Assessment; D-CAT, Digit Cancellation Test; LCT, Letter Cancellation Test; FAB, Frontal Assessment Battery; VFT, Verbal Fluency Test; GDS, Geriatric Depression Scale; HDRS, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale; FBI, Frontal Behavioral Inventory.