Long-Term Longitudinal Course of Cognitive and Motor Symptoms in Patients With Cerebral Small Vessel Disease.

Background And Objectives: Patients with cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) show a heterogenous clinical course. The aim of the current study was to investigate the longitudinal course of cognitive and motor function in patients who developed parkinsonism, dementia, both, or none.

Methods: Participants were from the Radboud University Nijmegen Diffusion Tensor and Magnetic Resonance Cohort study, a prospective cohort of patients with SVD.

Structural Network Efficiency Predicts Conversion to Incident Parkinsonism in Patients With Cerebral Small Vessel Disease.

Background: To investigate whether structural network disconnectivity is associated with parkinsonian signs and their progression, as well as with an increased risk of incident parkinsonism.

Methods: In a prospective cohort (Radboud University Nijmegen Diffusion Tensor and Magnetic Resonance Cohort study) consisting of 293 participants with small vessel disease (SVD), we assessed parkinsonian signs and incident parkinsonism over an 8-year follow-up. In addition, we reconstructed the white matter network followed by graph-theoretical analyses to compute the network metrics.

The impact of deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus on facial emotion recognition in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is successful in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) but may worsen cognitive outcome, including facial emotion recognition (FER). Data-analyses on 59 consecutive PD patients with complete pre- and postoperative assessments, using a sensitive FER test, showed no changes in FER 1 year after STN-DBS surgery, both after group and individual analyses. These findings do however not exclude the impact of FER in and on itself on the outcome after STN-DBS.

Does spinal cord stimulation improve gait in Parkinson's disease: A comprehensive review.

Introduction: Axial disability, including gait disturbances, is common in Parkinson's disease (PD), especially in advanced stages. Epidural spinal cord stimulation (SCS) has been investigated as a treatment option for gait disorders in PD. Here, we review the literature on SCS in PD and evaluate its efficacy, optimal stimulation parameters, optimal electrode locations, possible effects of concurrent deep brain stimulation, and possible working mechanisms on gait.

Cerebral Small Vessel Disease Progression Increases Risk of Incident Parkinsonism.

Objective: Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) is associated with motor impairments and parkinsonian signs cross-sectionally, however, there are little longitudinal data on whether SVD increases risk of incident parkinsonism itself. We investigated the relation between baseline SVD severity as well as SVD progression, and incident parkinsonism over a follow-up of 14 years.

Methods: This study included 503 participants with SVD, and without parkinsonism at baseline, from the RUN DMC prospective cohort study.