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Subthalamic deep brain stimulation improves smooth pursuit and saccade performance in patients with Parkinson’s disease
Nilsson, Maria H Patel, Mitesh Rehncrona, Stig Magnusson, Måns Fransson, Per-Anders
Nilsson, Maria H
Patel, Mitesh
Rehncrona, Stig
Magnusson, Måns
Fransson, Per-Anders
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2013-04-03
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Abstract
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) significantly reduces symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD) such as bradykinesia, tremor and rigidity. It also reduces the need for anti-PD medication, and thereby potential side-effects of L-Dopa. Although DBS in the STN is a highly effective therapeutic intervention in PD, its mechanism and effects on oculomotor eye movement control and particularly smooth pursuit eye movements have to date rarely been investigated. Furthermore, previous reports provide conflicting information. The aim was to investigate how DBS in STN affected oculomotor performance in persons with PD using novel analysis techniques. Methods Twenty-five patients were eligible (22 males, 3 females) according to the clinical inclusion criteria: idiopathic PD responsive to L-Dopa and having had bilateral STN stimulation for at least one year to ensure stable DBS treatment. Fifteen patients were excluded due to the strict inclusion criteria applied to avoid interacting and confounding factors when determining the effects of DBS applied alone without PD medication. One patient declined participation. Nine PD patients (median age 63, range 59–69 years) were assessed after having their PD medications withdrawn overnight. They were examined with DBS ON and OFF, with the ON/OFF order individually randomized. Results DBS ON increased smooth pursuit velocity accuracy (p < 0.001) and smooth pursuit gain (p = 0.005), especially for faster smooth pursuits (p = 0.034). DBS ON generally increased saccade amplitude accuracy (p = 0.007) and tended to increase peak saccade velocity also (p = 0.087), specifically both saccade velocity and amplitude accuracy for the 20 and 40 degree saccades (p < 0.05). Smooth pursuit latency tended to be longer (p = 0.090) approaching normal with DBS ON. Saccade latency was unaffected. Conclusions STN stimulation from DBS alone significantly improved both smooth pursuit and saccade performance in patients with PD. The STN stimulation enhancement found for oculomotor performance suggests clear positive implications for patients’ ability to perform tasks that rely on visual motor control and visual feedback. The new oculomotor analysis methods provide a sensitive vehicle to detect subtle pathological modifications from PD and the functional enhancements produced by STN stimulation from DBS alone.
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Nilsson, M.H., Patel, M., Rehncrona, S., Magnusson, M. et al. (2013) Subthalamic deep brain stimulation improves smooth pursuit and saccade performance in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation 10, 33. DOI: 10.1186/1743-0003-10-33
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© 2013 The Authors. Published by BMC. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence.
The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1186/1743-0003-10-33
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1743-0003
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The authors’ wish to acknowledge the financial supported from the Swedish Medical Research Council (grant nr. 17x-05693), the Medical Faculty, Lund University, Sweden, and the Swedish Parkinson Academy. This study was performed within the Strategic Research Area Multipark at Lund University and within the context of the Centre for Ageing and Supportive environments (CASE), Lund University, Sweden, funded by the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research.