Article

Gait characteristics in the early stages of Parkinson's disease
(PD) have been less investigated so far. Moreover, the levodopa effect on gait in
early PD remains to be further elucidated. We prospectively designed the study to
examine gait dynamics and effect of dopaminergic treatment in patients with de
novo PD. METHODS: Spatiotemporal parameters were measured in healthy controls and
drug naive patients with PD, using computerized analysis with GAITRite system
during usual gait. In PD group, motor symptoms and gait parameters were examined
in both drug naive and levodopa 100mg trial conditions. RESULTS: Twenty four de
novo PD patients and 27 healthy controls (matched for age, sex, and height) were
selected for the study. Compared with the controls, patients with de novo PD
showed the decrease in stride length, in both Med-OFF and Med-ON conditions.
Notably, drug naive patients with PD demonstrated slow walking velocity, whereas
those with levodopa administration exhibited the increase of cadence by
shortening stride time, which resulted in the improvement of gait speed. In
addition, the stride length (gait hypokinesia) correlated with postural
instability and gait difficulty subscore, but not with tremor, rigidity,
bradykinesia, or total motor score. CONCLUSION: As a compensatory mechanism of
slow walking, we found that the increment in cadence (frequency) is more
important than the increment in stride length (amplitude) in gait dynamics in de
novo PD. Additionally, the results may indicate that gait hypokinesia in PD could
be regarded as one of axial symptoms.
CI - Copyright (c) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS