Alteration of heart rate variability in patients with Parkinson's disease after subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation: a Meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the changes of heart rate variability (HRV) after subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Methods Retrieve relevant cohort studies from online databases (January 1, 2000-December 1, 2017) in PubMed, EMBASE/SCOPUS, Cochrane Online Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Data and VIP database with key words: subthalamic nucleus, deep brain stimulation, DBS, STN, electrical stimulation, Parkinson disease, heart rate variability. Low-frequency power (LF), high-frequency power (HF) and LF/HF of HRV were applied as evaluation indexes. Quality of studies was evaluated by using Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). All data were pooled by RevMan 5.3 software for Meta-analysis. Results We enrolled 28 English articles, from which 6 studies with NOS score 7 were chosen after excluding duplicates and those not meeting the inclusion criteria. A total of 101 PD patients undergoing STN-DBS were included. Meta-analysis showed that there were no significant differences in the LF of HRV (SMD = 0.050, 95%CI: -0.230-0.330; P = 0.740), HF of HRV (SMD = 0.160, 95%CI: - 0.120-0.430; P = 0.270), and LF/HF of HRV (SMD = 0.110, 95%CI: -0.220-0.440; P = 0.500) in patients with PD before and after the treatment of STN-DBS. Conclusions STN-DBS does not change HRV of patients with PD.

Keywords

• Parkinson disease
• Deep brain stimulation
• Subthalamic nucleus
• Heart rate
• Meta-analysis