Predictive Value of Ambulatory Objective Movement Measurement for Outcomes of Levodopa/Carbidopa Intestinal Gel Infusion

Patients with Parkinson’s disease that may benefit from device-assisted therapy can be identified with guidelines like Navigate PD. The decision to offer advanced treatment and the choice of treatment modality are, however, not straightforward, and some patients respond less favorably to a chosen therapy. Measurements with the Parkinson Kinetigraph (PKG) can detect motor fluctuations and could therefore predict patients that respond better or worse to intestinal levodopa/carbidopa gel infusion (LCIG). In a retrospective analysis of 45 patients that had been selected to start LCIG between 2014 and 2020, the effects of baseline PKG and clinical characteristic on the outcome were determined with ordinal regression. Although all patients had been found to have handicapping medication-related symptom fluctuations, patients without clear objective off fluctuations in the baseline PKG had low odds ratio for success. Lower odds for success were also found with increasing age, whereas gender, medication intensity and baseline PKG summary scores (median bradykinesia and dyskinesia scores, fluctuation dyskinesia score and percent time with tremor) had no significant effect. Absence of easily identified off-periods in the PKG has a negative prognostic value for the effect of LCIG and could prompt noninvasive infusion evaluation before surgery.