Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus in Parkinson's disease: effects of variation in stimulation parameters.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relation between the variation of the parameters of stimulation and the clinical effectiveness in parkinsonian patients treated with deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN), to provide information on the electrical parameter setting and the mechanism of action of deep brain stimulation. METHODS: Ten patients with Parkinson's disease bilaterally implanted in the STN were studied. For every patient the intensity of the stimulus necessary to obtain the disappearance of contralateral wrist rigidity (required clinical effect, RCE) and the side effect threshold in 20 different conditions of stimulation, coupling four pulse width values (60, 120, 210, 450 micros) with five rate values (10, 50, 90, 130, 170 Hz) were determined. All the patients were tested after a 12 hour withdrawal of antiparkinsonian drugs, and the clinical evaluation was double blind. RESULTS: In all the patients it was impossible to obtain the RCE using 10 and 50 Hz stimulus rates. For all the other stimulus rate values, the intensity-pulse width curves (IPWCs) for the RCE and for the side effect threshold showed a hyperbolic trend. For every pulse width value, increasing the rate from 90 to 130 and to 170 Hz progressively decreased the intensity of the stimulus necessary to reach the RCE, but the differences were not significant. Within the same rate value, the progressive reduction of the stimulus intensity necessary to obtain the RCE, obtained with the lengthening of the pulse width was significant (p<0.05) only comparing 60 with 210 micros and 60 with 450 micros. CONCLUSIONS: The findings give some useful indications for the electrical parameter setting in deep brain stimulation of the STN, and some information about the mechanism of action of deep brain stimulation.