P 37. The cognitive course in Parkinson's disease patients treated with Deep Brain Stimulation of subthalamic nucleus – Correlations with qEEG. Issue 8 (August 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Meyer, A.; Saleh, C.; Gschwandtner, U.; Fuhr, P.
• Is Part Of: Clinical neurophysiology. Volume 132:Issue 8(2021)
• Page Start: e17
• Publication Date: 2021-08
• Subjects: Neurophysiology -- Periodicals; Electroencephalography -- Periodicals; Electromyography -- Periodicals; Neurology -- Periodicals; 612.8
• DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2021.02.356
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1388-2457

Abstract

Abstract : Objective. Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN-DBS) improve motor functioning in Parkinson"s disease patients– Additionally it can also influence cognitive functioning. In most patients, a decline of verbal fluency test performance after STN-DBS is often reported. The purpose of this study was to determine whether preoperative quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) may be useful in the preoperative assessment predicting cognitive changes in PD patients treated with STN-DBS. Methods. We compared the cognitive performance of 16 PD patients who underwent bilateral STN-DBS and 15 PD controls (matched for age, sex and education) at baseline as well as after 24 months. Cognitive scores were calculated for all patients across 5 cognitive domains covered by different cognitive tests (attention, executive function, episodic & working memory, verbal fluency, visuo-construction). A preoperative 256-channels EEG was recorded of each patient at rest and global relative power spectra were computed. Correlation and linear regression models were used to assess the association of preoperative EEG measures with postoperative cognitive scores in stimulated PD patients compared to PD controls. Results. The decline of verbal fluency performance after two years in the PD group treated with STN-DBS was significant in comparison to the PD controls ( p < 0.001). All other cognitive domains declined in the same manner as in the PD controls or remained stable over the 24-months period. EEG frequency analyses revealed increased global theta power (4-8 Hz) at baseline to be associated with reduced postoperative verbal fluency performance ( r = 0.50, p < 0.05) at follow-up. Conclusion. Consistent with the results of former studies, STN stimulation deteriorates verbal fluency in the course of two years. Accordingly, we observed significant decline in tests measuring verbal fluency in the group of PD patients treated with STN-DBS compared to a control group of PD patients. The decline of verbal fluency performance could be predicted by a reduced theta power at baseline. No other significant differences in cognitive alterations between patients in the STN-DBS group and the PD control group occur over two years.