• Brain Stimul · Jul 2012

    Clinical Trial

    Transient effects of 80 Hz stimulation on gait in STN DBS treated PD patients: a 15 months follow-up study.

    • Valeria Ricchi, Maurizio Zibetti, Serena Angrisano, Aristide Merola, Nichy Arduino, Carlo Alberto Artusi, Mario Rizzone, Leonardo Lopiano, and Michele Lanotte.
    • Department of Neuroscience, University of Torino, Turin, Italy.
    • Brain Stimul. 2012 Jul 1;5(3):388-92.

    BackgroundSubthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN DBS) is an effective therapeutic option for advanced Parkinson's disease (PD). Nevertheless, some patients develop gait disturbances despite a persistent improvement of PD segmental symptoms. Recent studies reported that stimulation of STN with low frequencies produced a positive effect on gait disorders and freezing episodes.ObjectiveTo evaluate the effects of 80 Hz stimulation frequency on gait in PD patients undergoing STN DBS and to determine whether such effects are maintained over time.MethodsWe evaluated 11 STN DBS treated PD patients who had developed gait impairment several years after surgery. Gait was assessed by means of the Stand-Walk-Sit (SWS) test. Motor symptoms and activities of daily living were evaluated through the Unified PD Rating Scale (UPDRS). The stimulation frequency was switched from 130 Hz to 80 Hz, adapting the voltage to maintain the same total delivered energy. Patients were assessed at baseline and 3 hours after switching the stimulation frequency to 80 Hz. Follow-up evaluations were carried out after 1, 5, and 15 months. The clinical global improvement scale was rated at every follow-up visit.ResultsA significant improvement of gait (SWS test) was evident immediately after switching the stimulation frequency to 80 Hz, with no deterioration of PD segmental symptoms. However, gait improvement was no longer detectable by the SWS test at follow-up evaluations 1, 5, and 15 months later. Three patients were switched back to 130 Hz because of unsatisfactory control of motor symptoms. Of the eight patients maintained at 80 Hz up to 15 months, five showed a global improvement and three showed no change.ConclusionsStimulation frequency at 80 Hz has an immediate positive effect on gait in STN DBS treated patients; however, the objective gait improvement is not maintained over time, limiting the use of this frequency modulation strategy in the clinical setting.Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…