Nonmotor symptoms evolution during 24 months of bilateral subthalamic stimulation in Parkinson's disease.

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to investigate 24-month of effects of bilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) on nonmotor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD). METHODS: In this prospective, observational, multicenter, international study including 67 PD patients undergoing bilateral STN-DBS, we examined the Non-motor Symptom Scale, Non-Motor Symptoms Questionnaire, Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire-8, Scales for Outcomes in Parkinson's Disease-motor examination, -activities of daily living, and -complications, and levodopa-equivalent daily dose preoperatively and at 5 and 24-month of follow-up. After checking distribution normality, longitudinal outcome changes were investigated with Friedman tests or repeated-measures analysis of variance and Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons using multiple tests. Post hoc, Wilcoxon signed rank t tests were computed to compare visits. The strength of clinical responses was analyzed using effect size. Explorative Spearman correlations of change scores from baseline to 24-month follow-up were calculated for all outcomes. RESULTS: The Non-motor Symptom Scale and all other outcome parameters significantly improved from baseline to the 5-month follow-up. From 5 to 24-month, partial decrements in these gains were found. Nonetheless, comparing baseline with 24-month follow-up, significant improvements were observed for the Non-motor Symptom Scale (small effect), Scales for Outcomes in PD-motor examination showed a moderate effect, and Scales for Outcomes in Parkinson's Disease-complications and levodopa-equivalent daily dose showed large effects. Non-motor Symptom Scale change scores from baseline to 24-month follow-up correlated significantly with Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire-8, Scales for Outcomes in Parkinson's Disease-activities of daily living, and -motor complications change scores. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence of beneficial effects of bilateral STN-DBS on nonmotor symptoms at 24-month follow-up. The extent of nonmotor symptom improvement was directly proportionate to improvements in quality of life, activities of daily living, and motor complications. This study underlines the importance of nonmotor symptoms for holistic assessments of DBS outcomes. © 2018 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

[Defi catches on : Implementation of a curriculum for resuscitation in secondary schools]. / Defi macht Schule : Implementierung eines Curriculums zum Thema Reanimation an weiterführenden Schulen.

BACKGROUND: Sudden cardiac arrest is still one of the most frequent causes of death. Teaching resuscitation in schools was already successfully implemented in Scandinavian countries. Following a recommendation of the conference of german stateministers of education in June 2014, additional tuition for resuscitation is to be implemented in german schools starting in seventh grade. METHODS: The present study aimed to assess the level of knowledge of seventh grade students in the field of life support and to implement curricular standards for resuscitation courses in secondary schools. Using a standardized questionnaire, students in seventh grade of five schools in Cologne were interrogated about their knowledge on resuscitation and defibrillation. This assessment was taken as basis for developing a curricular teaching concept by the Cologne heart centre in cooperation with the department of biology and technical didactics at the University of Cologne. This tutorial concept was integrated in scholar plans for the first time in the school year 2014/2015. At the end of the school year the students' knowledge got reevaluated. RESULTS: As expected, the technical knowledge of the interviewed students is low, however confidence in their own abilities is high. Most of the interviewed persons would be willing to perform chest compressions (72,26%) and dare using an automated external defibrillator (AED, 64,38%). The exact position of defibrillator pads cannot be precisely indicated by most students (8,40%), compression point, -depth and -frequency are known by just one third of students. Already one-time performance of the live-saving lesson resulted in a clear increase of knowledge about resuscitation. CONCLUSIONS: The willingness to perform resuscitation measures and confidence in their own abilities are high in seventh grade students. Therefore, the recommendation of the conference of german stateministers of education in June 2014 addresses the right target group. Long-term success of the presented educational concept will be analysed and reported in a longitudinal study.

Beneficial effect of 24-month bilateral subthalamic stimulation on quality of sleep in Parkinson's disease.

BACKGROUND: Subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) improves quality of life (QoL), motor, and sleep symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the long-term effects of STN-DBS on sleep and its relationship with QoL outcome are unclear. METHODS: In this prospective, observational, multicenter study including 73 PD patients undergoing bilateral STN-DBS, we examined PDSleep Scale (PDSS), PDQuestionnaire-8 (PDQ-8), Scales for Outcomes in PD-motor examination, -activities of daily living, and -complications (SCOPA-A, -B, -C), and levodopa-equivalent daily dose (LEDD) preoperatively, at 5 and 24 months follow-up. Longitudinal changes were analyzed with Friedman-tests or repeated-measures ANOVA, when parametric tests were applicable, and Bonferroni-correction for multiple comparisons. Post-hoc, visits were compared with Wilcoxon signed-rank/t-tests. The magnitude of clinical responses was investigated using effect size. RESULTS: Significant beneficial effects of STN-DBS were observed for PDSS, PDQ-8, SCOPA-A, -B, and -C. All outcomes improved significantly at 5 months with subsequent decrements in gains at 24 months follow-up which were significant for PDSS, PDQ-8, and SCOPA-B. Comparing baseline and 24 months follow-up, we observed significant improvements of PDSS (small effect), SCOPA-A (moderate effect), -C, and LEDD (large effects). PDSS and PDQ-8 improvements correlated significantly at 5 and 24 months follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: In this multicenter study with a 24 months follow-up, we report significant sustained improvements after bilateral STN-DBS using a PD-specific sleep scale and a significant relationship between sleep and QoL improvements. This highlights the importance of sleep in holistic assessments of DBS outcomes.