Objective: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most frequent progressive neuro-degenerative disease and the Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is a useful surgical treatment to treat the symptoms of this disease. There are several reports about the effect of the DBS on cerebral hemodynamics, but unfortunately there isn’t any consensus about this effect.

Background: The aim of our study is to evaluate the effect of the high frequency subthalamic nucleus (STN) – DBS on cerebral flow dynamic via Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound (TCDU).

Methods: Thirteen patients with advanced PD who underwent bilateral STN – DBS surgery at least three months before included in the study. The cerebral hemodynamics were evaluated by TCDU. The blood flow velocity, pulsatility index (PI) and, resistance index measured by the TCDU on the right middle cerebral artery. The measurement repeated when the DBS-off, when the DBS-on and frequency adjusted to 60 Hz, and lastly when the DBS-on and frequency adjusted to 130 Hz. The TCDU measurement was made following a 15-min pause after administering each new setting, to clearly see the effects of each frequency.

Results: The high-frequency DBS had significantly lower PI values (0.88 ± 0.12) than low-frequency (0.94 ± 0.14) and DBS-off (1.00 ± 0.25) conditions (p=0.017). No significant differences were detected in other evaluation parameters.

Conclusions: Our study showed that the high-frequency STN-DBS leads to decrease of PI and the decreased PI may result by the dilatation of cerebral vessels and could increase the cerebral blood flow.

References: 1. Sidtis JJ, Tagliati M, Alterman R, Sidtis D, Dhawan V, Eidelberg D. Therapeutic high-frequency stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus in Parkinson’s disease produces global increases in cerebral blood flow. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 2012;32:41-49. 2. Mubeen AM, Ardekani B, Tagliati M, Alterman R, Dhawan V, Eidelberg D, Sidtis JJ. Global and multi-focal changes in cerebral blood flow during subthalamic nucleus stimulation in Parkinson’s disease. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 2017 Jan 1:271678X17705042.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/comparison-of-low-frequency-stimulation-versus-high-frequency-stimulation-of-the-subthalamic-nucleus-on-cerebral-hemodynamics-in-parkinsons-disease-a-transcranial-doppler-study/