Dataset Information

How Do I Examine Parkinsonian Gait?

ABSTRACT: Gait disturbances and falls are common among older adults and patients with Parkinson's disease. These symptoms curtail mobility, independence, and quality of life. This video illustrates important aspects of parkinsonian gait and highlights features that should be focused on during the clinical examination. These include walking speed, step length, step width, posture, arm swing, shuffling, foot clearance, turning abilities, and freezing of gait. We emphasize the need to distinguish between continuous and episodic walking difficulties and to incorporate walking while dual tasking into the gait assessment. We also demonstrate how to quantify the Timed up and Go test using a stopwatch and how to carry out other clinical tests that can be used to help to characterize mobility, such as the pull test and tandem stand. We show how to test for and provoke freezing of gait by guiding the patient through a series of demanding walking trajectories, turns, and using dual tasking and other relatively challenging conditions. Finally, the walking pattern of a patient with cautious gait of unknown origin (so-called high-level gait disorder) is shown. This case illustrates the contribution of fear of falling and the effects of hand support. In general, the video demonstrates the power of clinical observation and its utility when examining the gait of older adults and patients with Parkinson's disease.

SUBMITTER: Giladi N

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6353335 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul-Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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How Do I Examine Parkinsonian Gait?

Giladi Nir N Herman Talia T

Movement disorders clinical practice 20160311 4

Gait disturbances and falls are common among older adults and patients with Parkinson's disease. These symptoms curtail mobility, independence, and quality of life. This video illustrates important aspects of parkinsonian gait and highlights features that should be focused on during the clinical examination. These include walking speed, step length, step width, posture, arm swing, shuffling, foot clearance, turning abilities, and freezing of gait. We emphasize the need to distinguish between con ...[more]

PMID: 30713937

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Project description:The parkinsonian gait disorder and freezing of gait are therapeutically demanding symptoms with considerable impact on quality of life. The aim of this study was to assess the role of subthalamic and nigral neurons in the parkinsonian gait control using intraoperative microelectrode recordings of basal ganglia neurons during a supine stepping task. Twelve male patients (56 ± 7 years) suffering from moderate idiopathic Parkinson's disease (disease duration 10 ± 3 years, Hoehn and Yahr stage 2), undergoing awake neurosurgery for deep brain stimulation, participated in the study. After 10 s resting, stepping at self-paced speed for 35 s was followed by short intervals of stepping in response to random 'start' and 'stop' cues. Single- and multi-unit activity was analysed offline in relation to different aspects of the stepping task (attentional 'start' and 'stop' cues, heel strikes, stepping irregularities) in terms of firing frequency, firing pattern and oscillatory activity. Subthalamic nucleus and substantia nigra neurons responded to different aspects of the stepping task. Of the subthalamic nucleus neurons, 24% exhibited movement-related activity modulation as an increase of the firing rate, suggesting a predominant role of the subthalamic nucleus in motor aspects of the task, while 8% of subthalamic nucleus neurons showed a modulation in response to the attentional cues. In contrast, responsive substantia nigra neurons showed activity changes exclusively associated with attentional aspects of the stepping task (15%). The firing pattern of subthalamic nucleus neurons revealed gait-related firing regularization and a drop of beta oscillations during the stepping performance. During freezing episodes instead, there was a rise of beta oscillatory activity. This study shows for the first time specific, task-related subthalamic nucleus and substantia nigra single-unit activity changes during gait-like movements in humans with differential roles in motor and attentional control of gait. The emergence of perturbed firing patterns in the subthalamic nucleus indicates a disrupted information transfer within the gait network, resulting in freezing of gait.

Project description:Freezing of gait is one of the most debilitating symptoms in Parkinson's disease as it causes falls and reduces mobility and quality of life. The pedunculopontine nucleus is one of the major nuclei of the mesencephalic locomotor region and has neurons related to anticipatory postural adjustments preceding step initiation as well as to the step itself, thus it may be critical for coupling posture and gait to avoid freezing. Because freezing of gait and postural impairments have been related to frontal lesions and frontal dysfunction such as executive function, we hypothesized that freezing is associated with disrupted connectivity between midbrain locomotor regions and medial frontal cortex. We used diffusion tensor imaging to quantify structural connectivity of the pedunculopontine nucleus in patients with Parkinson's disease with freezing of gait, without freezing, and healthy age-matched controls. We also included behavioural tasks to gauge severity of freezing of gait, quantify gait metrics, and assess executive cognitive functions to determine whether between-group differences in executive dysfunction were related to pedunculopontine nucleus structural network connectivity. Using seed regions from the pedunculopontine nucleus, we were able to delineate white matter connections between the spinal cord, cerebellum, pedunculopontine nucleus, subcortical and frontal/prefrontal cortical regions. The current study is the first to demonstrate differences in structural connectivity of the identified locomotor pathway in patients with freezing of gait. We report reduced connectivity of the pedunculopontine nucleus with the cerebellum, thalamus and multiple regions of the frontal cortex. Moreover, these structural differences were observed solely in the right hemisphere of patients with freezing of gait. Finally, we show that the more left hemisphere-lateralized the pedunculopontine nucleus tract volume, the poorer the performance on cognitive tasks requiring the initiation of appropriate actions and/or the inhibition of inappropriate actions, specifically within patients with freezing. These results support the notion that freezing of gait is strongly related to structural deficits in the right hemisphere's locomotor network involving prefrontal cortical areas involved in executive inhibition function.

Project description:BackgroundExercises with motor complexity induce neuroplasticity in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD), but its effects on freezing of gait are unknown. The objective of this study was to verify if adapted resistance training with instability - exercises with motor complexity will be more effective than traditional motor rehabilitation - exercises without motor complexity in improving freezing-of-gait severity, outcomes linked to freezing of gait, and brain function.MethodsFreezers were randomized either to the adapted resistance training with instability group (n = 17) or to the active control group (traditional motor rehabilitation, n = 15). Both training groups performed exercises 3 times a week for 12 weeks. The primary outcome was the New Freezing of Gait Questionnaire. Secondary outcomes were freezing of gait ratio (turning task), cognitive inhibition (Stroop-III test), motor signs (Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale part-III [UPDRS-III]), quality of life (PD Questionnaire 39), anticipatory postural adjustment (leg-lifting task) and brain activation during a functional magnetic resonance imaging protocol of simulated anticipatory postural adjustment task. Outcomes were evaluated before and after interventions.ResultsOnly adapted resistance training with instability improved all the outcomes (P < 0.05). Adapted resistance training with instability was more effective than traditional motor rehabilitation (in improving freezing-of-gait ratio, motor signs, quality of life, anticipatory postural adjustment amplitude, and brain activation; P < 0.05). Our results are clinically relevant because improvement in the New Freezing of Gait Questionnaire (-4.4 points) and UPDRS-III (-7.4 points) scores exceeded the minimally detectable change (traditional motor rehabilitation group data) and the moderate clinically important difference suggested for PD, respectively. The changes in mesencephalic locomotor region activation and in anticipatory postural adjustment amplitude explained the changes in New Freezing of Gait Questionnaire scores and in freezing-of-gait ratio following adapted resistance training with instability, respectively.ConclusionsAdapted resistance training with instability is able to cause significant clinical improvement and brain plasticity in freezers. © 2020 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

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How Do I Examine Parkinsonian Gait?

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How Do I Examine Parkinsonian Gait?

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