Functional MRI (fMRI) Evaluation of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) Efficacy in Chronic Cerebral Stroke: A Small Retrospective Consecutive Case Series

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) evaluation of HyberBaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) effects on chronic cerebral stroke Patients (Pts). Our aim was to evaluate with fMRI, in a 3 Tesla system, the functional effects of HBOT on the Central Nervous System (CNS) in four Pts with established ischaemic and haemorrhagic cerebral strokes (2 Pts each). To our knowledge, no author used this Magnetic Resonance (MR) technique for this purpose, till now. All four Pts underwent a fMRI study before and after 40 HBOT sessions, with a time window of a few days. They carried out two language (text listening, silent word-verb generation) and two motor (hand and foot movements) tasks (30 s On-Off block paradigms). After HBOT, all Pts reported a clinical improvement, mostly concerning language fluency and motor paresis. fMRI analysis demonstrated an increase in both the extent and the statistical significance of most of the examined eloquent areas. These changes were consistent with the clinical improvement in all Pts, suggesting a possible role of fMRI in revealing neuronal functional correlates of neuronal plasticity and HBOT-related neoangiogenesis. Although only four Pts were examined, fMRI proved to be a sensitive, non-invasive and reliable modality for monitoring neuronal functional changes before and after HBOT.