TRANSCRANIAL MAGNETIC STIMULATION - ITS ROLE IN THE EVALUATION OF PATIENTS WITH PARTIAL EPILEPSY

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a relative new method in th e evaluation of patients with various neurological diseases. With the introduction of repetitive (rapid rate) transcranial magnetic stimulat ors (RTMS), it has been possible to apply cortical stimuli with a stim ulus rate up to 100 Hz. The preliminary results with TRMS suggest that it may be used in the study of speech lateralization. Seizures have b een reported in patients with partial epilepsy during TMS. In these ca ses it remains uncertain whether the seizures were induced by the TMS or coincidentally with it. Minor changes in paroxysmal activity have b een reported in some patients. These data suggest, that TMS is neither sensitive nor specific as an activation procedure of the epileptic fo cus in patients with partial epilepsy. Seizures have been provoked usi ng RTMS, but its use as a seizure-inducing method is not yet evaluated .