The first time Howard County inventor Dr. Robert Fischell experienced a migraine symptom known as an aura, he had no clue what was happening. Images of dancing circles crowded his vision, and when the circles grew larger, he thought he was about to have a stroke.
Suddenly, the aura stopped and to Fischell's surprise, and relief, no ailment followed. "Oh, thank God," he said.
Now the maker of the first implantable insulin pump, the rechargeable pacemaker and various coronary stents has invented a hand-held device that targets the aura en route to stopping a migraine - a painful, sometimes debilitating headache disorder - before it starts.
Fischell's Neuralieve Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) Treatment System device is creating a buzz throughout medical circles - and could provide hope for the millions of Americans who suffer from aura-accompanied migraine headaches.
Having received satisfactory results in testing the device, Fischell applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June for approval to manufacture the device for commercial sale. He hopes the device will be on the market (via prescription only) by the beginning of next year.
Fischell's noninvasive device marks a significant advance in TMS technology, which doctors and scientists have used since the 1980s to probe brain activity, and, in recent years, to treat depression.
Fischell's contraption looks like a box with two handles on opposite sides. At the onset of an aura - a neurological disturbance where nerves in the brain spontaneously fire - the user places the device at the back of his head near the part of the brain called the occipital cortex, where auras begin. The press of a trigger on the device emits two magnetic pulses 15 seconds apart. The pulses silence the nerve activity, shutting down the aura before migraine pain sets in.
And while the TMS treatment for migraine headache is largely in its experimental phase, it has not been associated with serious side effects. Treatments to stem migraine-accompanied aura include applying steroids directly to the occipital cortex."The magnetic pulses are equivalent to what you get during an MRI, the intensity of the magnetic field," said Fischell, 79, from his Dayton home. "The patients do feel a tingle in their scalp, which is not at all unpleasant. That is really our only side effect, and it is not at all a problem. It merely indicates to the patient that there has been a treatment. Medications are somewhat effective, but they all have side effects. Our treatment has zero side effects."
