Are Patients with GBA-Parkinson Disease Good Candidates for Deep Brain Stimulation? A Longitudinal Multicentric Study on a Large Italian Cohort

Background: variants increase the risk of developing Parkinson disease (PD) and influence its outcome. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a recognised therapeutic option for advanced PD. Data on DBS long-term outcome in carriers are scarce.

Objective: To elucidate the impact of variants on long-term DBS outcome in a large Italian cohort.

Methods: We retrospectively recruited a multicentric Italian DBS-PD cohort and assessed: (1) prevalence; (2) pre-DBS clinical features; and (3) outcomes of motor, cognitive and other non-motor features up to 5 years post-DBS.

Results: We included 365 patients with PD, of whom 73 (20%) carried variants. 5-year follow-up data were available for 173 PD, including 32 mutated subjects. GBA-PD had an earlier onset and were younger at DBS than non-GBA-PD. They also had shorter disease duration, higher occurrence of dyskinesias and orthostatic hypotension symptoms.At post-DBS, both groups showed marked motor improvement, a significant reduction of fluctuations, dyskinesias and impulsive-compulsive disorders (ICD) and low occurrence of most complications. Only cognitive scores worsened significantly faster in GBA-PD after 3 years. Overt dementia was diagnosed in 11% non-GBA-PD and 25% GBA-PD at 5-year follow-up.

Conclusions: Evaluation of long-term impact of variants in a large Italian DBS-PD cohort supported the role of DBS surgery as a valid therapeutic strategy in GBA-PD, with long-term benefit on motor performance and ICD. Despite the selective worsening of cognitive scores since 3 years post-DBS, the majority of GBA-PD had not developed dementia at 5-year follow-up.