Technical Assessment of Ultrasonic Cerebral Tomosphygmography and New Scientific Evaluation of Its Clinical Interest for the Diagnosis of Electrohypersensitivity and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

Abstract

Ultrasonic cerebral tomosphygmography (UCTS), also known as “encephaloscan”, is an ultrasound-based pulsatile echoencephalography for both functional and anatomical brain imaging investigations. Compared to classical imaging, UCTS makes it possible to locate precisely the spontaneous brain tissue pulsations that occur naturally in temporal lobes. Scientific publications have recently validated the scientific interest of UCTS technique but clinical use and industrial development of this ancient brain imaging technique has been stopped notably in France, not for scientific or technical reasons but due to a lack of financing support. UCTS should be fundamentally distinguished from transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (TDU), which, although it also uses pulsed ultrasounds, aims at studying the velocity of blood flow (hemodynamics) in the cerebral arteries by using Doppler effect, especially in the middle cerebral artery of both hemispheres. Instead, UCTS has the technical advantage of measuring and locating spontaneous brain tissue pulsations in temporal lobes. Recent scientific work has shown the possibility to make an objective diagnosis of electrohypersensitivity (EHS) and multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) by using UCTS, in conjunction with TDU investigation and the detection of several biomarkers in the peripheral blood and urine of the patients. In this paper, we independently confirm the clinical interest of using UCTS for the diagnosis of EHS and MCS. Moreover, it has been shown that repetitive use of UCTS in EHS and/or MCS patients can contribute to the objective assessment of their therapeutic follow-up. Since classical CT scan and MRI are usually not contributive for the diagnosis and are poorly tolerated by these patients, UCTS should therefore be considered as one of the best imaging technique to be used for the diagnosis of these new disorders and the follow-up of patients.

The Critical Importance of Molecular Biomarkers and Imaging in the Study of Electrohypersensitivity. A Scientific Consensus International Report

“…This is unfortunately not the case for most provocation studies so far achieved in EHS patients, which have been often carried out in a limited number of selected patients without using EHS-related objective inclusion criteria and suitable assessment endpoints (see below). This demonstrates why EHS first should have been objectively defined as a distinct pathological disorder thanks to the use of critical and rigorous methods of clinical research, as had been done previously and had been published by several research groups in different peer-reviewed scientific articles [ 1 , 9 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ], rather than attempting to search for EMF-related causality before EHS was objectively defined.…”

“…Following the WHO-sponsored scientific consensus meeting in 2004 in Prague, this morbid condition was called “idiopathic environmental intolerance” (IEI) attributed to electromagnetic fields (IEI-EMF) [ 53 ], which suggests environmental intolerance possibly caused by EMF-related environmental exposure. However, because this pathological condition was essentially described symptomatically (similar to the previously described microwave syndrome [ 54 ]), several research groups including the French research team [ 1 , 9 , 48 , 49 , 50 ] and others [ 46 , 47 , 50 ] have attempted to search for molecular biomarkers and radiological criteria to objectively identify and characterize EHS.…”

“…Nevertheless, they strongly testify to the somatic non-psychological signature of EHS, as is the case for many nosologically recognized diseases included in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Moreover, using different imaging techniques, including ultrasonic cerebral tomosphygmography (UCTS) [ 49 , 50 ], transcranial Doppler of the middle cerebral arteries [ 1 ] and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) [ 47 ], it was shown that EHS is associated with brain neurovascular dysfunction, even with potentially neuronal lesions, primarily involving the temporal lobes—most particularly the limbic system as well as other parts of the brain [ 47 , 49 , 50 ]. Clearly these data, which have been recently analyzed in a review of EHS-associated pathophysiological mechanisms [ 68 ], show the path to follow if we want to learn more about EHS and MCS, understand their pathophysiological molecular signature, and—most of all—if we want to determine efficient treatment and prevention methods based on rigorous scientific data.…”

Az elektromágneses tereknek tulajdonított idiopátiás környezeti intolerancia (IEI-EMF) jelensége az érintettek szemszögéből

“…pulzáló ultrahangalapú echográfiás eljárással dolgozott (Belpomme és mtsai, 2018;Irigaray, Catherine, és mtsai, 2018). Ezt az "encephaloscan"-nek nevezett vizsgálati módszert az 1966-os bemutatása óta csak szórványosan használják, kizáró-lag kutatási célokra (Greco, 2020). Az eredményeik szerint az elektromágnesesen túlérzékeny páciensek a temporális lebeny, a talamusz és a limbikus rendszer területein csökkent pulzációs indexszel voltak jellemezhetők, ami csökkent agyi véráramlással, neuronális diszfunkciókkal járhat együtt (Belpomme és mtsai, 2015;Irigaray, Lebar, és mtsai, 2018).…”

A qualitative approach to experiential knowledge identified in focus groups aimed at co-designing a provocation test in the study of electrohypersensitivity

“…The process is characterised by an accumulation of consultations with practitioners of different specialities, as well as personal research to reach this self-diagnosis [ 26 ]. Indeed, although in recent years several researchers have suggested the use of biomarkers [ 27–29 ] or ultrasonic brain tomosphygmography [ 30 , 31 ] in the EHS diagnosis, these methods are not recognised and validated by medical authorities. As a result, the EHS diagnosis remains bound to its attributions by its sufferers [ 26 , 32 ] and still constitutes a “contested illness,” characterised by a complex relationship between experiential and biomedical knowledge [ 33 ].…”