An exploratory study of quantitative analysis of gait characteristics in patients with early Parkinson′s disease / 中华神经科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To identify and quantify spatiotemporal and kinematic gait parameters in a group of early-stage Parkinson′s disease (PD) patients compared with healthy subjects.Methods:Eight patients with PD (PD group, Hoehn-Yahr stage≤2.5) and seven age-matched healthy subjects (control group) were enrolled from the Department of Neurology, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine between May 2017 and August 2018 for the study. The spatiotemporal and kinematic gait parameters were obtained by Vicon 3D optical motion analysis system under three conditions single-task walking, dual-task walking and turning. The linear mixed model was used to compare the gait parameters between the two groups and analyze the interactive effects.Results:Arm swing amplitude in the PD group was lower than that in the control group ((0.63±0.15) m vs (0.89±0.27) m in single-task walking, (0.64±0.16) m vs (0.99±0.22) m in dual-task walking, β=-0.353, 95% CI -0.558--0.148, P=0.002). The PD group showed significantly higher arm swing asymmetry than the control group (12.48%±5.48% vs 6.96%±4.39% in single-task walking, 17.13%±4.05% vs 7.67%±5.23% in dual-task walking, β=8.992, 95% CI 4.148-13.836, P=0.001). A notable interactive effect of groups and task factors in arm swing asymmetry was found. The arm swing asymmetry of the PD group increased more than the control group in dual-task walking than in single-task walking (β=3.916, 95% CI 1.367-6.466, P=0.003). As for the gait characteristics of the lower limbs, stride length and step length of the PD group were lower than those of the control group ((1.10±0.17) m vs (1.31±0.10) m in stride length, β=-0.169, 95% CI -0.300--0.038, P=0.015; (0.55±0.09) m vs (0.65±0.04) m in step length, β=-0.081, 95% CI -0.150--0.013, P=0.023). For both groups, statistically significant differences were not observed in step width, stride length and step length between single-task and dual-task walking ( P>0.05). The PD group completed the turning process faster than the control group ((1.66±0.30) s vs (1.37±0.23) s, β=0.302, 95% CI 0.049-0.555, P=0.023). As for the rotation-onset pattern, no statistically significant differences were found between the PD and the control group for the onset of the head, trunk and pelvic rotation ( P>0.05). Participants started to rotate their heads before the pelvis in all groups (β=-0.060, 95% CI-0.107--0.014, P=0.011). Conclusions:The quantified gait parameters can more accurately reflect the gait characteristics of early PD. Patients with PD exhibited smaller arm swing magnitude, greater arm swing asymmetry, shorter stride length, and slower turning speed compared to the controls. Arm swing asymmetry further differs between subjects with early PD and controls under dual-task walking.