AUTHOR=Aygun Dursun , Kocabicak Ersoy , Yildiz Mustafa Onur , Temel Yasin 

TITLE=Effect of Age and Disease Duration on the Levodopa Response in Patients with Advanced Parkinson’s Disease for Deep Brain Stimulation of the Subthalamic Nucleus

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neurology

VOLUME=7

YEAR=2016

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2016.00097

DOI=10.3389/fneur.2016.00097

ISSN=1664-2295

ABSTRACT=<sec id="ST1"><title>Background</title><p>Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has become a preferred option for the treatment of motor symptoms in patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease (PD). A good levodopa response (LR) is considered the most important criterion in determining the suitability of a patient for DBS. However, the effect of age and disease duration (DD) on the LR is still a subject of discussion.</p></sec><sec id="ST2"><title>Objective</title><p>Here, we investigated the effect of age and DD on the preoperative LR in PD patients to be selected for DBS.</p></sec><sec id="ST3"><title>Methods</title><p>From August 2011 to May 2015, 54 consecutive patients (29 men and 25 women) with advanced PD were evaluated for DBS of the STN and included in this retrospective study.</p></sec><sec id="ST4"><title>Results</title><p>Thirty-seven patients were found suitable for DBS of the STN and 29 of them underwent bilateral surgery. We found no significant correlation between DD and the LR. However, there was a significant negative correlation between the patients’ age and the LR.</p></sec><sec id="ST5"><title>Conclusion</title><p>The results indicate that the patients’ age, rather than DD, has a negative effect on the LR. The study, therefore, indicates that PD patients with an advanced age and with a poor LR are not good candidates for DBS of the STN.</p></sec>