[P2–043]: COMPLEMENTARY EEG EVIDENCE FOR A SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVED ALZHEIMER's DISEASE CASE AFTER PHOTOBIOMODULATION TREATMENT

Abstract

A recent case series report presented significant improvement in dementia patients after transcranial plus intranasal photobiomodulation (PBM) treatments. The phenomenon calls for evidence that the brains were responding to PBM and not to alternative external stimuli. This study utilizes electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate the case of an Alzheimer's disease (AD) patient experiencing significant improvement in cognition. The study used 810 nm, 40 Hz pulsed, light-emitting diode (LED) devices combining transcranial plus intranasal PBM to treat the cortical nodes of the default mode network (DMN). The patient had a baseline Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score of 21. He received the PBM intervention for 6 days/week for 2 weeks. The protocol involved weekly, at home use of a transcranial-intranasal PBM device. The patient was administered the MMSE, the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS-cog), the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS-ADL) and resting state electroencephalograms (EEG) at baseline and after 2 weeks. After only two weeks of treatment, the patient showed significant improvement in the MMSE score from 21 to 24, ADAS-ADL from 43 to 58, and ADAS-cog from 35.33 to 23.34. These cognitive improvements were accompanied by oscillation changes in the delta, theta and alpha frequency bands expressed in EEG readings. The absolute power of alpha frequency increased significantly from 5.1 μV2 to 12.7 μV2, and the peak of the alpha wave oscillation shifted from 8.6 Hz into 9.3 Hz. In addition, the absolute power of delta and theta increased from 1.86 μV2 to 2.9 μV2 and 2.12 μV2 to 3.7 μV2, respectively. The patient improved significantly in his cognition after 2 weeks of PBM treatments, which the EEG data presented as the overall increase in absolute power across all brain oscillations. The enhanced overall EEG data may be associated with improved DMN function, supporting the potential of transcranial plus intranasal PBM as a safe and effective treatment for AD. EEG can also be a useful complementary tool to recognize the brain's response to PBM, potentially guiding the adjustment of PBM parameters, for improved clinical outcomes. Further studies are warranted to validate the potential of this PBM intervention.