MRI study of human brain exposed to high-dose repetitive magnetic stimulation of visual cortex

Abstract
Article abstract T1-, T2-, and diffusion-weighted MRI was used to determine whether repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) affects the blood–brain barrier or induces localized brain edema. In 11 healthy individuals, 1,200 to 3,800 stimuli were applied over the visual cortex of one hemisphere in series of 5-, 10-, or 20-Hz stimulus trains. MRI performed 6 minutes to 6 hours after rTMS did not show pathologic changes in conventional MRI sequences, after application of gadolinium diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (Gd-DTPA), or by determining apparent diffusion coefficients.