Freezing of gait (FoG) is a disabling symptom associated with falls, with little or no responsiveness to pharmacological treatment. Current protocols used for rehabilitation are based on the use of external sensory cues. However, cued strategies might generate an important dependence on the environment. Teaching motor strategies without cues [i.e., action observation (AO) plus Sonification] could represent an alternative/innovative approach to rehabilitation that matters most on appropriate allocation of attention and lightening cognitive load. We aimed to test the effects of a novel experimental protocol to treat patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and FoG, using functional, and clinical scales. The experimental protocol was based on AO plus Sonification. 12 patients were treated with 8 motor gestures. They watched eight videos showing an actor performing the same eight gestures, and then tried to repeat each gesture. Each video was composed by images and sounds of the gestures. By means of the Sonification technique, the sounds of gestures were obtained by transforming kinematic data (velocity) recorded during gesture execution, into pitch variations. The same 8 motor gestures were also used in a second group of 10 patients; which were treated with a standard protocol based on a common sensory stimulation method. All patients were tested with functional and clinical scales before, after, at 1 month, and 3 months after the treatment. Data showed that the experimental protocol have positive effects on functional and clinical tests. In comparison with the baseline evaluations, significant performance improvements were seen in the NFOG questionnaire, and the UPDRS (parts II and III). Importantly, all these improvements were consistently observed at the end, 1 month, and 3 months after treatment. No improvement effects were found in the group of patients treated with the standard protocol. These data suggest that a multisensory approach based on AO plus Sonification, with the two stimuli semantically related, could help PD patients with FoG to relearn gait movements, to reduce freezing episodes, and that these effects could be prolonged over time.

Over a three-year period, treatment with IFN beta-1a significantly slowed the progression of whole-brain and GM atrophy, and of T1-hypointense LV accumulation, when compared with the control group.

No abstract

Introduction The overall frequency of postural abnormalities (PA) in Parkinson's disease (PD) is unknown. We evaluated the overall prevalence of PA and assessed the association with demographic and clinical variables. Methods For this multicenter, cross‐sectional study, consecutive PD outpatients attending 7 tertiary Italian centers were enrolled. Patients were evaluated and compared for the presence of isolated PA such as camptocormia, Pisa syndrome, and anterocollis and for combined forms (ie, camptocormia + Pisa syndrome) together with demographic and clinical variables. Results Of the total 811 PD patients enrolled, 174 (21.5%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 18.6%–24.3%) presented PA, 144 of which had isolated PA and 30 had combined PA. The prevalence of camptocormia was 11.2% (95% CI, 9%–13.3%), Pisa syndrome 8% (95% CI, 6.2%–9.9%), and anterocollis 6.5% (95% CI, 4.9%–8.3%). Patients with PA were more often male and older with longer disease duration, more advanced disease stage, more severe PD symptoms, a bradykinetic/rigid phenotype, and poorer quality of life. They were initially treated with levodopa, and more likely to be treated with a combination of levodopa and dopamine agonist, took a higher daily levodopa equivalent daily dose, and had more comorbidities. Falls and back pain were more frequent in PD patients with PA than in those without PA. Multiple logistic regression models confirmed an association between PA and male gender, older age, Hoehn and Yahr stage, and total Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale score. Conclusions PA are frequent and disabling complications in PD, especially in the advanced disease stages.