Gait analysis may distinguish progressive supranuclear palsy and Parkinson disease since the earliest stages

Abstract

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is a rare and rapidly progressing atypical parkinsonism. Albeit existing clinical criteria for PSP have good specificity and sensitivity, there is a need for biomarkers able to capture early objective disease-specific abnormalities. This study aimed to identify gait patterns specifically associated with early PSP. The study population comprised 104 consecutively enrolled participants (83 PD and 21 PSP patients). Gait was investigated using a gait analysis system during normal gait and a cognitive dual task. Univariate statistical analysis and binary logistic regression were used to compare all PD patients and all PSP patients, as well as newly diagnosed PD and early PSP patients. Gait pattern was poorer in PSP patients than in PD patients, even from early stages. PSP patients exhibited reduced velocity and increased measures of dynamic instability when compared to PD patients. Application of predictive models to gait data revealed that PD gait pattern was typified by increased cadence and longer cycle length, whereas a longer stance phase characterized PSP patients in both mid and early disease stages. The present study demonstrates that quantitative gait evaluation clearly distinguishes PSP patients from PD patients since the earliest stages of disease. First, this might candidate gait analysis as a reliable biomarker in both clinical and research setting. Furthermore, our results may offer speculative clues for conceiving early disease-specific rehabilitation strategies.

Monitoring gait at home with radio waves in Parkinson’s disease: A marker of severity, progression, and medication response

“…Last, we note that our findings open up new possibilities that could improve clinical practice across other illnesses. The medical literature shows that gait speed is a valuable metric for many diseases and health conditions including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, dementia, frailty, mortality, impaired mood, cognitive decline, ataxia, Huntington's disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, and multiple system atrophy (14,(17)(18)(19)(20)(54)(55)(56)(57)(58)(59)(60)(61)(62)(63)(64)(65). Our study demonstrates the feasibility of continuously monitoring this metric at home in a passive manner.…”

Force Platform-Based Intervention Program for Individuals Suffering with Neurodegenerative Diseases like Parkinson

“…Such type of advance techniques allows an objective evaluation of different gait parameters and provides accurate and reliable information of gait variation of PD patients. This reduces the error margin caused by subjective techniques [ 18 ].…”

Screening of Parkinson’s Disease Using Geometric Features Extracted from Spiral Drawings

“…Tremor variation over time during resting tasks, modified shape-drawing, and supplementary imaging alongside alternative tests are among the many solutions pursued in previous literature in order to differentiate PD motor symptoms from those of conditions such as essential tremor, multiple system atrophy, and Lewy body dementia (LBD) [60][61][62]. To separate PD from progressive supranuclear palsy, a frequentlyencountered cause of atypical parkinsonism, studies have presented suggestions ranging from the identification of hypokinesia without decrement in handwriting tasks to the extraction of characteristic features through gait analysis [63,64]. In addressing dementias such as Alzheimer's disease and LBD, their visuospatial symptoms, which influence patient handwriting, have been the subject of ongoing research due to their striking similarities to symptoms of PD [65,66].…”