Article

OBJECTIVE: To assess muscle passive stiffness in medicated Parkinson's disease
patients using myotonometry. DESIGN: Case-control study. SETTING: Kinesiology
laboratory. PARTICIPANTS: Women with Parkinson's disease (PD) (n=8) and healthy
matched elderly women (controls) (n=10) (mean age: PD, 77+/-3y; controls,
77+/-4y). INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Passive stiffness
of relaxed biceps brachii (BB) muscle was measured using myotonometry.
Additionally, surface electromyographic and mechanomyographic signals were
recorded from the muscle at rest, and amplitude of those signals was analyzed
offline. RESULTS: The values of BB muscle passive stiffness were significantly
(P=.004) higher in PD than in the controls, with a statistically significant
influence of parkinsonian rigidity score (Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating
Scale) on intergroup differences (P<.001). The Spearman correlation coefficient
rho value showed a significant (P=.005) positive relationship (rho=.866) between
the parkinsonian rigidity score and passive stiffness values of BB in PD. The
groups did not differ significantly in the electromyogram amplitude (P=.631) and
mechanomyogram amplitude (P=.593) of the BB muscle, and values of these
parameters did not correlate significantly with rigidity score (P=.555, P=.745,
respectively) in the patients. CONCLUSIONS: Myotonometer is a sensitive enough
tool to show that PD patients have higher muscle passive stiffness than healthy
controls.

Langue : ANGLAIS