The Rate of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Patients with Deep Brain Stimulation

For Parkinson's disease (PD), essential tremor (ET), and dystonia patients with deep brain stimulation (DBS) implants, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) requires additional safety considerations due to potentially hazardous interactions.

A propensity-matched cohort of DBS-implanted patients was analyzed to determine the likelihood of needing MRI.

Patients with new DBS full-system implants (n = 576) were identified in the Truven Health MarketScan® Commercial Claims and Medicare Supplemental Databases (2009-2012). Patients diagnosed with PD, ET, or dystonia and no DBS implant were identified (DBS-indicated patients: n = 11,216). The DBS-indicated patients were continuously enrolled for 4 years and matched for age, gender, and propensity score based on comorbid conditions to DBS-implanted patients (n = 4,878 and 543, respectively). A Kaplan-Meier survival curve of time to first MRI was extrapolated to 10 years.

An estimated 56-57% of DBS-indicated patients need an MRI within 5 years and 66-75% within 10 years after implantation. While 92% of DBS-implanted patients' MRI after implantation was of the head, for DBS-indicated patients, 62% of MRIs were of the body, potentially unrelated to the primary diagnosis.

This analysis highlights the projected utilization of MRI in the DBS population for head and full-body images.