Effect of Subthalamic Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation (STN-DBS) on balance performance in Parkinson's disease

PLoS One. 2020 Sep 11;15(9):e0238936. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0238936. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Purpose: To study the effect of STN-DBS on balance performance of Parkinson's disease.

Method: 16 idiopathic PD patients treated with bilateral STN-DBS (DBS Group) and 20 PD patients treated with Levodopa (Medicine group) were included in the study. Clinical material including Levodopa Equivalent Daily Dose (LEDD, mg/day), life quality (PDQ-39) were collected. For DBS group and Medicine group, The motor disability (Movement Disorder Society-Sponsored Revision of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale Ⅲ, MDS-UPDRSIII) and balance performance (MDS-UPDRS 3.12, Berg Balance Scale BBS) and the Limits of Stability (LoS) (target acquisition percentage, trunk swing angle standard deviation, time) in state of Med-Off/Med-On at preoperation, postoperation, 6 months postoperation and 12 months postoperation were evaluated. Repeated ANOVA was used to analyze the effect of STN-DBS on balance performance.

Result: The Clinical material (age, gender, duration, LEDD preoperation, PDQ39), motor disability (Med-on/Med-Off), balance performance (Med-on/Med-Off) and LoS preoperation had no differences in DBS-group and Medical-group (P>0.05). During the follow up, LEDD, PDQ39, Motor disability (MDS-UPDRSIII), balance performance (MDS-UPDRS 3.12, BBS) in Medicine-group had no significant changes in both Med-Off and Med-On. For DBS-group, immediately improvement of motor disability (MDS-UPDRSIII), LoS (target acquisition percentage, trunk swing angle standard deviation, time) and LEDD were observed postoperation (P<0.05); PDQ39, balance performance (MDS-UPDRS 3.12, BBS) began to improve at 6 months and 12 months postoperation. Repeated ANOVA showed that DBS could significantly improve the motor disability, balance performance and LoS in PD.

Conclusion: STN-DBS could improve the balance performance of PD patients in H&Y3.

MeSH terms

  • Deep Brain Stimulation / methods*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Motor Disorders / epidemiology
  • Motor Disorders / therapy*
  • Parkinson Disease / physiopathology*
  • Quality of Life
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Subthalamic Nucleus*
  • Treatment Outcome

Grants and funding

The authors received no specific funding for this work.