Deep brain stimulation of the motor thalamus relieves experimentally induced air hunger

We previously reported that deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the motor thalamus, in a patient with post-stroke tremor, relieved breathlessness associated with COPD. This raised the question of whether motor thalamus DBS mitigates the ascending dyspnoea signal. We therefore sought to conduct a fully powered cohort study of experimentally induced air hunger, an uncomfortable urge to breathe in patients with motor thalamus DBS "ON" and "OFF".

16 patients (three females) with DBS of the ventral intermediate nucleus (VIM) as treatment for tremor underwent hypercapnic air hunger tests, with DBS ON and OFF. Patients rated air hunger on a visual analogue scale (VAS) every 15 s. Hypercapnia and ventilation were matched for ON and OFF states (end-tidal carbon dioxide tension mean±sd 43±4 and 43±4 mmHg, respectively; ventilation 13.7 and 13.4 L·min^-1, respectively). Participants' ventilation was constrained to baseline levels by breathing from a 3-L inspiratory reservoir with fixed flow of fresh gas while targeting their resting breathing frequency to a metronome.

Overall steady-state air hunger was 52±28%VAS for ON and 67±20%VAS for OFF (p=0.002; two-tailed paired t-test). The mean reduction in air hunger during VIM DBS was -14.4%VAS. DBS of the motor thalamus relieved air hunger in 13 patients, heightened air hunger in two and caused no change in one.

DBS of the motor thalamus for tremor relief also mitigates the air hunger component of dyspnoea. We posit that DBS of the motor thalamus heightens the gating control of the thalamus modulating the ascending air hunger signal. Extent of relief suggests that thalamic DBS may prove to be a viable therapy for intractable dyspnoea.