UNASSIGNED: Primary cervical @entity3519 is characterized by abnormal, involuntary, and sustained contractions of cervical muscles. Current ways of treatment focus on alleviating symptomatic muscle activity. Besides pharmacological treatment, in severe cases @entity1 may receive neuromodulative intervention such as deep brain stimulation. However, these (highly invasive) methods have some major drawbacks. For the first time, percutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (pVNS) was applied in a single case of @entity4956 . Auricular vagus nerve stimulation was already shown to modulate the (autonomous) sympathovagal balance of the body and proved to be an effective treatment in acute and @entity1118 , @entity302 , as well as @entity308 . pVNS effects on cervical @entity3519 may be hypothesized to rely upon: (i) the alteration of sensory input to the brain, which affects structures involved in the genesis of motoric and nonmotoric @entity3520 ; and (ii) the alteration of the sympathovagal balance with a sustained impact on involuntary movement control, @entity158 , @entity25 , and general well-being. The presented data provide experimental evidence that pVNS may be a new alternative and minimally invasive treatment in @entity4956 . One female @entity1 (age 50 years) suffering from therapy refractory cervical @entity3519 was treated with pVNS over 20 months. Significant improvement in @entity925 , @entity3520 , and autonomic regulation as well as a subjective improvement in motility, sleep, and mood were achieved. A subjective improvement in @entity158 recorded by visual analog scale ratings (0-10) was observed from 5.42 to 3.92 (medians). Muscle tone of the mainly affected left and right trapezius muscle in supine position was favorably reduced by about 96%. Significant reduction of muscle tone was also achieved in sitting and standing positions of the @entity1 . Habituation to stimulation leading to reduced stimulation efficiency was observed and counteracted by varying stimulation patterns. Experimental evidence is provided for significantly varied sympathovagal modulation in response to pVNS during sleep, assessed via heart rate variability (HRV). Time domain measures like the root mean square of successive normal to normal heart beat intervals, representing parasympathetic (vagal) activity, increased from 37.8 to 67.6 ms (medians). Spectral domain measures of HRV also show a shift to a more pronounced parasympathetic activity.

Modulation of Muscle Tone and Sympathovagal Balance in Cervical XXXX Using Percutaneous Stimulation of the Auricular Vagus Nerve.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['patients', 'patient'] @entity308 :: ('MESH:D003866', 'Disease') :: ['major depression'] @entity3520 :: ('MESH:D020821', 'Disease') :: ['dystonic symptoms'] @entity4956 :: ('MESH:C566572', 'Disease') :: ['primary cervical dystonia'] @entity302 :: ('MESH:D004827', 'Disease') :: ['epilepsy'] @entity158 :: ('MESH:D010146', 'Disease') :: ['pain'] @entity3519 :: ('MESH:D004421', 'Disease') :: ['dystonia'] @entity925 :: ('MESH:D063806', 'Disease') :: ['muscle pain'] @entity1118 :: ('MESH:D059350', 'Disease') :: ['chronic pain'] @entity25 :: ('MESH:D012893', 'Disease') :: ['quality of sleep']
@entity3519 :: (MESH:D004421,Disease) :: ['Dystonia']
