Effects of short-term deep brain stimulation in subthalamic nucleus on glucose metabolism in Parkinson′s disease

Abstract

Objective To study the effect of short-term treatment of subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) on cerebral glucose metabolism in patients with Parkinson′s disease (PD) and its relationship with the change of brain motor-related nerve pathways. Methods Five patients (2 males, 3 females; age: (63.6±11.8) years) with PD who underwent STN DBS between January 2014 and December 2018 were enrolled in this study. All patients underwent 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET in DBS-off state before and 3 months after operation. Quantitative expression of PD-related metabolic pattern (PDRP) were calculated by scaled subprofile model/principal component analysis (SSM/PCA) on PET images. Brain regions with changes of glucose metabolism after DBS were located by statistical parametric mapping (SPM) paired t test. Results Compared with pre-operation, PDRP expression (5.1±1.3 vs 2.9±1.8) and unified Parkinson′s disease rating scale (UPDRS) motor score (50.2±8.2 vs 28.0±5.4) of PD patients were significantly decreased 3 months after STN DBS (t values: 6.17 and 3.88, both P<0.05). After DBS, the glucose metabolism of bilateral globus pallidus/putamen, caudate nucleus, thalamus, insula, pons and cerebellum decreased, while the glucose metabolism of bilateral prefrontal motor area and parietooccipital lobe increased (t=3.75, P<0.01). Conclusions Short-term STN DBS therapy can inhibit the cortico-striatum-pallidum-hypothalamus-cortex motor loop, which is abnormally excitable in the brain of PD. PDRP, as an imaging characterization of the regulation of this loop, is expected to become an imaging marker for monitoring the treatment of PD. Key words: Parkinson disease; Deep brain stimulation; Subthalamic nucleus; Positron-emission tomography; Deoxyglucose