Martijn Beudel

Amsterdam University Medical Center | VUmc · Department of Neurology

Neuropsychiatric symptoms are common and disabling in Parkinson’s disease (PD), with troublesome anxiety occurring in one-third of patients. Management of anxiety in PD is challenging, hampered by insufficient insight into underlying mechanisms, lack of objective anxiety measurements, and largely ineffective treatments. In this study, we assessed t...

This scientific commentary refers to ‘Increased beta synchronization underlies perception-action hyperbinding in functional movement disorders’, by Pastötter et al. (https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcae301).

Adaptive deep brain stimulation (aDBS) is an emerging advancement in DBS technology; however, local field potential (LFP) signal rate detection sufficient for aDBS algorithms and the methods to set-up aDBS have yet to be defined. Here we summarize sensing data and aDBS programming steps associated with the ongoing Adaptive DBS Algorithm for Persona...

Background Visualisation of the dorsolateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) remains challenging on 1.5 and 3Tesla T2-weighted MRI. Our previously defined hotspot, relative to the well-visualised medial STN border, serves as an MRI landmark for dorsolateral STN identification in deep brain stimulation (DBS). We aimed to validate this hotspot in a separat...

Background Neuropsychiatric symptoms are common and disabling in Parkinson's disease (PD), with troublesome anxiety occurring in one-third of patients. Management of anxiety in PD is challenging, hampered by insufficient insight into underlying mechanisms, lack of objective anxiety measurements, and largely ineffective treatments. In this study, we...

Introduction: During the first COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 in the Netherlands, the incidence of pulmonary embolism (PE) appeared to be high in COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). This study was performed to evaluate the incidence of PE during hospital stay in COVID-19 patients not admitted to the ICU. Methods: Data were re...

Background Identifying the dorsolateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) for deep brain stimulation (DBS) in Parkinson's disease (PD) can be challenging due to the size and double‐oblique orientation. Since 2015 we implemented 7‐Tesla T2 weighted magnetic resonance imaging (7 T T2) for improving visualization and targeting of the dorsolateral STN. We desc...

Objectives The aim of this multicentre COVID-PREDICT study (a nationwide observational cohort study that aims to better understand clinical course of COVID-19 and to predict which COVID-19 patients should receive which treatment and which type of care) was to determine the association between atrial fibrillation (AF) and mortality, intensive care u...

Objectives To evaluate the relationship among dysnatraemia at hospital presentation and duration of admission, risk of intensive care unit (ICU) admission and all-cause mortality and to assess the underlying pathophysiological mechanism of hyponatraemia in patients with COVID-19. Our hypothesis is that both hyponatraemia and hypernatraemia at prese...

Connectivity-derived 7-Tesla MRI segmentation and intraoperative microelectrode recording can both assist subthalamic nucleus targeting for deep brain stimulation in Parkinson’s disease. It remains unclear whether deep brain stimulation electrodes placed in the 7-Tesla MRI segmented subdivision with predominant projections to cortical motor areas (...

Background The effectiveness of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) therapy for Parkinson’s disease can be limited by side-effects caused by electrical current spillover into structures adjacent to the target area. The objective of the STEEred versus RING-mode DBS for Parkinson’s disease (STEERING) study is to investigate if directional DBS for Parkinson’...

Objectives: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) for Parkinson's disease (PD) has an ambiguous relation to speech. Speech impairment can be a stimulation-induced side effect, and parkinsonian dysarthria can improve with STN-DBS. Owing to the lack of an up-to-date and evidence-based approach, DBS reprogramming for speech im...

Background: We previously reported that impaired type I IFN activity, due to inborn errors of TLR3- and TLR7-dependent type I interferon (IFN) immunity or to autoantibodies against type I IFN, account for 15-20% of cases of life-threatening COVID-19 in unvaccinated patients. Therefore, the determinants of life-threatening COVID-19 remain to be ide...

Background: Despite the low rate of bacterial co-infection, antibiotics are very commonly prescribed in hospitalised COVID-19 patients. Research question: Does the use of a PCT-guided antibiotic protocol safely reduce the use of antibiotics in patients with a COVID-19 infection? Study design and methods: In this multicentre cohort, 3 groups of...

Abstract We recently reported in the phase 3 PANAMO trial that selectively blocking complement 5a (C5a) with vilobelimab led to improved survival in critically ill COVID-19 patients. C5a is an important contributor to the innate immune system and can also activate the coagulation system. High C5a levels have been reported in severely ill COVID-19 p...

Dexamethasone improves clinical outcomes in COVID-19 patients requiring supplementary oxygen. We investigated possible mechanisms of action by comparing sixteen plasma host response biomarkers in general ward patients before and after implementation of dexamethasone as standard of care. 48 patients without and 126 patients with dexamethasone treatm...

Objective Local field potential (LFP) recordings from deep brain stimulation (DBS) electrodes are often contaminated with electrocardiographic (ECG) artifacts that hinder the detection of disease-specific electrical brain activity. Methods Three ECG suppression methods were evaluated: (1) QRS interpolation of the Perceive toolbox, (2) template sub...

Medical therapy in de novo Parkinson’s disease typically starts with a dopamine agonist or levodopa in combination with a decarboxylase inhibitor or if symptoms are still very mild with a MAO-B inhibitor. When patients do not (or no longer) respond satisfactorily to these initial therapies, different drugs can be initiated or combined (i.e., “add-o...

Purpose Two commonly used imaging techniques to aid in the diagnosis of neurodegenerative parkinsonian syndromes are dopamine transporter (DAT) imaging with [ ¹²³ I]-FP-CIT single-photon emission computed tomography (DAT-SPECT) and positron emission tomography with [ ¹⁸ F]-FDOPA (FDOPA-PET). This paper provides a unique series of parkinsonian patie...

Background For mechanically ventilated critically ill COVID-19 patients, prone positioning has quickly become an important treatment strategy, however, prone positioning is labor intensive and comes with potential adverse effects. Therefore, identifying which critically ill intubated COVID-19 patients will benefit may help allocate labor resources....

Introduction: Dystonia is characterized by sustained or intermittent muscle contractions, leading to abnormal posturing and twisting movements. In pediatric patients, dystonia often negatively influences quality of life. Pharmacological treatment for dystonia is often inadequate and may cause adverse effects. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) appears t...

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) treatment has proven effective in suppressing symptoms of rigidity, bradykinesia, and tremor in Parkinson’s disease. Still, patients may suffer from disabling fluctuations in motor and non-motor symptom severity during the day. Conventional DBS treatment consists of continuous stimulation but can potentially be further...

Objective: Our aim was to assess the real-world effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibitors for treatment of patients with progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. Methods: We conducted a multicenter survey compiling retrospective data from 79 PML patients, including 38 published cases and 41 unpublished cases, who received immune checkpoin...

Objective Sensing-enabled neurostimulators for deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy record neural activity directly from the stimulating electrodes in the form of local field potentials (LFPs). However, these LFPs are often contaminated with electrocardiographic (ECG) artifacts that impede the detection of physiomarkers for adaptive DBS research. T...

Imaging of dopaminergic transmission in neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson disease (PD) or dementia with Lewy bodies plays a major role in clinical practice and in clinical research. We here review the role of imaging of the nigrostriatal pathway, as well as of striatal receptors and dopamine release, in common neurodegenerative disorder...

Background Evidence from the US and UK suggests that ethnic minority populations are at an increased risk for developing severe COVID-19, however data from other West-European countries are scarce. Methods We analysed data from 1439 patients admitted between February 2020 and January 2021 to four main hospitals in Amsterdam and Almere, the Netherl...

Background Essential tremor (ET) is one of the most common movement disorders, and continuous deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an established treatment for medication-refractory cases. However, the need for increasing stimulation intensities, with unpleasant side effects, and DBS tolerance over time can be problematic. The advent of novel DBS device...

Subcortical structures are a relative neurophysiological ‘terra incognita’ owing to their location within the skull. While perioperative subcortical sensing has been performed for more than 20 years, the neurophysiology of the basal ganglia in the home setting has remained almost unexplored. However, with the recent advent of implantable pulse gene...

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been recognized as a highly prevalent risk factor for both the severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and COVID-19 associated adverse outcomes. In this multicenter observational cohort study, we aim to determine mortality and readmission rates of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 across varying CKD stages....

Background The dentato-rubro-thalamic tract (DRT) is currently considered as a potential target in deep brain stimulation (DBS) for various types of tremor. However, tractography depiction can vary depending on the included brain regions. The fast gray matter acquisition T1 inversion recovery (FGATIR) sequence, with excellent delineation of gray an...

Objective To evaluate the association between overweight and obesity on the clinical course and outcomes in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Design Retrospective, observational cohort study. Methods We performed a multicenter, retrospective, observational cohort study of hospitalized COVID-19 patients to evaluate the associations between over...

COVID-19 is a pandemic with high morbidity and mortality. In an autopsy cohort of COVID-19 patients, we found extensive accumulation of the tryptophan degradation products 3-hydroxy anthranilic acid and quinolinic acid in lungs, heart, and brain. This was not related to the expression of the tryptophan-catabolizing indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO)...

Background and aims Thrombosis is a major driver of adverse outcome and mortality in patients with Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Hypercoagulability may be related to the cytokine storm associated with COVID-19, which is mainly driven by interleukin (IL)-6. Plasma lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] levels increase following IL-6 upregulation and Lp(a) ha...

Introduction: Determining the optimal timing for extubation can be challenging in the intensive care. In this study, we aim to identify predictors for extubation failure in critically ill patients with COVID-19. Methods: We used highly granular data from 3464 adult critically ill COVID patients in the multicenter Dutch Data Warehouse, including...

Background: Subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN DBS) is an established therapy for Parkinson's disease (PD) patients suffering from motor response fluctuations despite optimal medical treatment, or severe dopaminergic side effects. Despite careful clinical selection and surgical procedures, some patients do not benefit from STN DBS. Pr...

Proximal muscle weakness of the legs is a symptom with a broad differential diagnosis. It is mainly caused by neuromuscular disorders and is often a diagnostic challenge. Here, we present a 73-year-old man with isolated proximal weakness of the legs due to lumbar root involvement on the basis of neuroborreliosis. After treatment with intravenous an...

Objective Validated clinical risk scores are needed to identify patients with COVID-19 at risk of severe disease and to guide triage decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the performance of early warning scores (EWS) in the ED when identifying patients with COVID-19 who will require intensi...

BACKGROUND Dentato-rubro-thalamic tract (DRT) deep brain stimulation (DBS) suppresses tremor in essential tremor (ET) patients. However, DRT depiction through tractography can vary depending on the included brain regions. Moreover, it is unclear which section of the DRT is optimal for DBS. OBJECTIVE To evaluate deterministic DRT tractography and t...

Importance It is unknown if there is a difference in outcome in asleep vs awake deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus for advanced Parkinson disease. Objective To determine the difference in adverse effects concerning cognition, mood, and behavior between awake and asleep DBS favoring the asleep arm of the study. Design, Setting...

Background The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has underlined the urgent need for reliable, multicenter, and full-admission intensive care data to advance our understanding of the course of the disease and investigate potential treatment strategies. In this study, we present the Dutch Data Warehouse (DDW), the first multicenter electro...

Objective Develop and validate models that predict mortality of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 admitted to the hospital. Design Retrospective cohort study. Setting A multicentre cohort across 10 Dutch hospitals including patients from 27 February to 8 June 2020. Participants SARS-CoV-2 positive patients (age ≥18) admitted to the hospital. Mai...

Dystonia is a disabling movement disorder characterized by excessive muscle contraction for which the underlying pathophysiology is incompletely understood and treatment interventions limited in efficacy. Here we utilize a novel, sensing-enabled, deep brain stimulator device, implanted in a patient with cervical dystonia, to record local field pote...

Background The identification of risk factors for adverse outcomes and prolonged intensive care unit (ICU) stay in COVID-19 patients is essential for prognostication, determining treatment intensity, and resource allocation. Previous studies have determined risk factors on admission only, and included a limited number of predictors. Therefore, usin...

Background Detecting SARS-CoV-2 antibodies may help to diagnose COVID-19. Head-to-head validation of different types of immunoassays in well-characterized cohorts of hospitalized patients remains needed. Methods We validated three chemiluminescence immunoassays (CLIAs) (Liaison, Elecsys, and Abbott) and one single molecule array assay (SIMOA) (Qua...

Objective To establish whether one can build a mortality prediction model for COVID-19 patients based solely on demographics and comorbidity data that outperforms age alone. Such a model could be a precursor to implementing smart lockdowns and vaccine distribution strategies. Methods The training cohort comprised 2337 COVID-19 inpatients from nine...

Background A relation between coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and acute pancreatitis has been suggested. However, the incidence and clinical relevance of this relation remain unclear. Objective We aimed to investigate the incidence, severity and clinical impact of acute pancreatitis in patients with COVID-19. Methods This is a cross-sectional...

Objectives: Recent reports suggest a high prevalence of hypertension and diabetes in COVID-19 patients, but the role of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in the clinical course of COVID-19 is unknown. We evaluated the time-to-event relationship between hypertension, dyslipidaemia, diabetes and COVID-19 outcomes. Design: We analysed data...

Objective: To systematically collect clinical data from patients with a proven COVID-19 infection in the Netherlands. Design: Data from 2579 patients with COVID-19 admitted to 10 Dutch centers in the period February to July 2020 are described. The clinical data are based on the WHO COVID case record form (CRF) and supplemented with patient chara...

Background: Subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN DBS) is an established therapy for Parkinson's disease (PD) patients suffering from motor response fluctuations despite optimal medical treatment, or severe dopaminergic side effects. Despite careful clinical selection and surgical procedures, some patients do not benefit from STN DBS. Pre...

Objective: Develop and validate models that predict mortality of SARS-CoV-2 infected patients admitted to the hospital. Design: Retrospective cohort study Setting: A multicenter cohort across ten Dutch hospitals including patients from February 27 to June 8 2020. Participants: SARS-CoV-2 positive patients (age ≥ 18) admitted to the hospital. Main O...

Objectives Recent reports suggest a high prevalence of hypertension and diabetes in COVID-19 patients, but the role of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in the clinical course of COVID-19 is unknown. We evaluated the time-to-event relationship between hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, and COVID-19 outcomes. Design We analyzed data from...

Objective To compare survival of individuals with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) treated in hospitals that either did or did not routinely treat patients with hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine. Methods We analysed data of COVID-19 patients treated in nine hospitals in the Netherlands. Inclusion dates ranged from 27 February to 15 May 2020, wh...

Objective To compare survival of subjects with COVID-19 treated in hospitals that either did or did not routinely treat patients with hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine. Methods We analysed data of COVID-19 patients treated in 9 hospitals in the Netherlands. Inclusion dates ranged from February 27th 2020, to May 15th, when the Dutch national guideli...