• Universitat de València
• Foundation for research at the La Fe University Hospital in Valencia

• Antonio Gutiérrez Martín
• Irene Martínez Torres
• Pilar Rubio Sánchez

Currently, patients with neurological diseases related to movement disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, suffer from symptoms such as tremor, stiffness, rigidity, stiffness, slow movement and walking problems. A group of these patients do not respond to pharmacological therapies, and one treatment option for them may be the implantation of electrodes by surgery with the Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) technique with the aim of eliminating these symptoms. DBS is applied in Parkinson's disease using the subthalamic nucleus, which covers an area of approximately 2-5 mm, as the target. Its small size makes the implantation of chronic electrodes critical, and completely dependent on the expertise of the neurologist/neurophysiologist. The main problem is therefore the correct localisation of the stimulation electrode. For this purpose, a microelectrode recording is obtained at different points along the implant trajectory, which allows the neural activity in each area to be analysed. Generally, the interpretation of the micro-electrode recording is performed by the neurosurgeon during the intervention. Due to the complexity of the signals obtained, and inter-patient variability, such interpretation carries a certain margin of error.

Research staff from the Universitat de València (UV) in collaboration with researchers from the Research Foundation of the La Fe University Hospital in Valencia have developed a new software called DBSPost: a tool to assist in the monitoring of patients implanted in deep brain stimulation surgery applied to Parkinson's disease. It provides complementary information to that currently obtained with conventional software by recording the patient's brain bioelectrical activity preoperatively and at subsequent revisions.

The new software would be applicable in the field of medical equipment for functional neurosurgery of movement disorders. It would add greater functionality, accuracy and optimisation of results to such equipment, complementing conventional micro-registration equipment. In addition to the treatment of Parkinson's disease, it could also be applied to other pathologies where DBS is used as a symptomatic therapy, such as epilepsy.

The main advantage provided by the invention is the increased likelihood of successful electrode implantation, because the software helps to delimit the optimal stimulation zone by obtaining and recording anatomophysiological measurements. These measurements allow patient monitoring, based on the analysis of changes in the electroencephalography pattern of the motor cortex induced by stimulation.

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