Low-field thoracic magnetic stimulation increases peripheral oxygen saturation levels in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients: A single-blind, sham-controlled, crossover study

This study aimed to demonstrate that a 30-minute single session of dorsal low-field thoracic magnetic stimulation (LF-ThMS) can be employed to increase SpO2 levels in COVID-19 patients significantly. Furthermore, we hypothesized that the variables associated with LF-ThMS, such as frequency, magnetic flux density, and temperature in the dorsal thorax, might be correlated to SpO2 levels in these patients. Here we employed an LF-ThMS device to noninvasively deliver a pulsed magnetic field from 100 to 118 Hz and 10.5 to 13.1 milliTesla (i.e., 105 to 131 Gauss) to the dorsal thorax. These values are within the intensity range of several pulsed electromagnetic field devices employed in physical therapy worldwide. We designed a single-blind, sham-controlled, crossover study on 5 COVID-19 patients who underwent 2 sessions of the study (real and sham LF-ThMS) and 12 patients who underwent only the real LF-ThMS. We found a statistically significant positive correlation between magnetic flux density, frequency, or temperature, associated with the real LF-ThMS and SpO2 levels in all COVID-19 patients. However, the 5 patients in the sham-controlled study did not exhibit a significant change in their SpO2 levels during sham stimulation. The employed frequencies and magnetic flux densities were safe for the patients. We did not observe adverse events after the LF-ThMS intervention. This study is a proof-of-concept that a single session of LF-ThMS applied for 30 minutes to the dor...
Source: Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Tags: Research Article: Observational Study Source Type: research