Leveraging Post-Operative Imaging in Deep Brain Stimulation to Relate Activated Tissue Volumes with Parkinson’s Disease Outcomes

Motivation: Post-operative imaging provides crucial insights into the effects of deep brain stimulation (DBS) lead placement and tissue activation in Parkinson's disease, especially within the globus pallidus internus (GPi) target, which has been less explored than the subthalamic nucleus (STN). Goal(s): To identify optimal stimulation zones by using post-operative T1 to extract and correlate activated tissue volumes with patient outcomes. Approach: Correlate atlas-based volume and group-aggregate-based distance measures of local DBS targeting with pre-to-post change in medication, a surrogate measure of outcome. Results: Significant correlations with medication change were observed for right GPi volume measures and STN distance measures. Impact: This study highlights the utility of post-operative T1 in deep brain stimulation (DBS), offering insights into optimal activation zones for personalized DBS programming to enhance clinical outcomes in subthalamic and pallidal DBS for Parkinson's disease symptom management.