Thalamic stimulation for parkinsonian tremor: Correlation between regional cerebral blood flow and physiological tremor characteristics

Masafumi Fukuda, Anna Barnes, Ely S. Simon, Andrew Holmes, Vijay Dhawan, Nir Giladi, Harald Fodstad, Yilong Ma, David Eidelberg*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

74 Scopus citations

Abstract

We used 15O-labeled water (H215O) positron emission tomography (PET) to study eight Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with unilateral ventral intermediate (Vim) thalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (DBS) for severe tremor. Triaxial accelerometry (TRIAX) was used during imaging to obtain on-line measures of tremor characteristics. Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) scans together with TRIAX recordings were collected in three stimulation conditions (OFF, MID, and ON, corresponding, respectively, to 0%, 50%, and 100% reductions in mean accelerometry signal). Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM99) revealed significant rCBF reductions during stimulation in the ipsilateral sensorimotor cortex (SMC) and the contralateral cerebellum, as well as concurrent increases in the ipsilateral ventral thalamus (P < 0.05, corrected). Covariate analysis of rCBF with physiological tremor characteristics revealed that tremor acceleration correlated positively with changes in the SMC and supplementary motor cortex ipsilaterally (P < 0.05, uncorrected), and negatively with changes in the ipsilateral cuneus (P < 0.05, corrected). After removing tremor acceleration effects, changes in tremor frequency correlated negatively with changes in the contralateral dentate nucleus and pons (P < 0.05, uncorrected). Our results suggest that Vim DBS for PD tremor modulates the activity of cerebello-thalamo-cortical pathways. Specific tremor characteristics relate to activity in different nodes of this system.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)608-615
Number of pages8
JournalNeuroImage
Volume21
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2004
Externally publishedYes

Funding

FundersFunder number
NIH K24 NS 02101K24 NS 02101
NIH NS RO1 35069NS RO1 35069
Parkinson Disease Foundation
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and StrokeR01NS035069
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

    Keywords

    • Anti-Aβ
    • Cerebral blood flow
    • Parkinson's disease

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Thalamic stimulation for parkinsonian tremor: Correlation between regional cerebral blood flow and physiological tremor characteristics'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this