ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Hum. Neurosci.
Sec. Brain Imaging and Stimulation
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2025.1559549
This article is part of the Research TopicImproving neurosurgical precision: leveraging technology for enhanced visualization and navigation of complex neuroanatomyView all 6 articles
Visualization of subthalamic nucleus on susceptibility weighted imaging and the verification of accuracy by microelectrode recording
Provisionally accepted
Kaijia Yu1
Qi Yao1
Yuanyang Wu1Jianyu Li2Lihua Shen3Xiaosu Gu3
Zhong Zheng Jia4
Jiajia Zhang1Jianhong Shen1*- 1Department of Neurosurgery, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu Province, China
- 2Department of Functional Neurosurgery, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
- 3Department of Neurology, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu Province, China
- 4Department of Radiology, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Objective: To investigate the advantages of susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) for visualizing the subthalamic nucleus (STN) and to verify the accuracy of this method by microelectrode recordings (MERs) and deep brain stimulation (DBS).We included 42 patients with Parkinson's disease who underwent STN-DBS in our center.The bilateral STN (n = 84) was visualized on preoperative 3-T T2-weighted imaging (T2w) and SWI and compared using a 4-point scale. The contrast-to-noise ratio of STN was calculated and compared between two images. The dorsoventral borders of the STN on SWI and T2w were measured and compared using data recorded by intraoperative MERs.The visualization scores for the STN and contrast-to-noise ratio of STN relative to the zona incerta and substantia nigra were significantly higher on SWI than on T2w images (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the location of the dorsal and ventral borders of the STN visualized by SWI when compared with MER data (P > 0.05). Errors for the dorsal and ventral borders of SWI-STN, as verified by MER (0.56 ± 0.32 mm and 0.72 ± 0.33 mm, respectively) were significantly lower than errors on T2w (0.75 ± 0.33 mm and 0.82 ± 0.45 mm for the dorsal and ventral borders, respectively) (P < 0.05).Conclusions: 3-T SWI was a superior method for delineating the STN than conventional T2w. When applying this method, the dorsoventral SWI-STN border coincided reliably with the physiological border determined by MERs. Direct targeting of the STN using SWI can help optimize preoperative target localization, trajectory planning, and postoperative programming.
Keywords: Susceptibility weighted imaging, Subthalamic Nucleus, Deep Brain Stimulation, direct targeting, accuracy, microelectrode recording
Received: 13 Jan 2025; Accepted: 06 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yu, Yao, Wu, Li, Shen, Gu, Jia, Zhang and Shen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jianhong Shen, Department of Neurosurgery, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu Province, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.