7T PD v1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Deep Brain Stimulation with 7 Tesla MRI – Improving Accuracy, Maximising Benefits
IRAS ID
318463
Contact name
Michael Hart
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
St George's University of London
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative condition. People with PD experience difficulties with movement, including symptoms of tremor, rigidity, and bradykinesia (slowness of movement). Additionally, there are non-motor symptoms of PD which include cognitive dysfunction, neuropsychiatric symptoms, dysautonomia, and pain.
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an effective device-aided therapy for the motor symptoms of PD, where electrodes are placed in the brain to modulate electrical activity. Successful DBS critically depends on accurate targeting of these electrodes to a specific area of the brain, usually the subthalamic nucleus (STN). Inaccurate targeting of DBS electrodes results in a lack of efficacy or intolerable side effects, requiring further surgery for remediation, with additional surgical risks such as stroke.
Targeting is typically performed using 3.0 Tesla (3T) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However, there is significant scope to improve this data quality using higher magnetic field strength scanners. For example, using 3T MRI, the STN is often incompletely visualised and there is an indistinct overlap with surrounding brain regions. Recent work has shown that ultra-high field imaging at 7.0 Tesla (7T) offers improved anatomical resolution of brain structures including the STN, suggesting that 7T-guided electrode placement may help to optimise DBS therapy in the future.
In the proposed study, we will recruit patients due to receive DBS surgery at St George’s Hospital, and healthy controls, to undergo a scan at the 7T MRI scanner housed at St Thomas’s Hospital. The purpose of this study is to investigate how imaging at 7T may improve DBS targeting and patient outcomes.
In summary, this will be an observational neuroimaging study that will require one MRI scanning session. There will be no alterations to clinical care.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/YH/0233
Date of REC Opinion
25 Oct 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion