Transitional Locomotor Tasks in People With Mild to Moderate Parkinson's Disease

Abstract

Background: People with Parkinson's disease (PD) exhibit deficits in maintaining balance both during quiet standing and during walking, turning, standing up from sitting, and step initiation. Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine balance disorders during a transitional task under different conditions in participants with PD. Methods: The research was conducted on 15 PD-II (mild) and 15 PD-III (moderate) individuals (H&Y II-III stage) and 30 healthy elderly. The transitional task was measured on two force platforms (A and B). The procedure consisted of three phases: (1) quiet standing on platform A, (2) crossing to platform B, and (3) quiet standing on platform B, each until measurements were completed. There were four conditions: crossing without an obstacle, crossing with an obstacle, and walking up and down the step. Results: There were no significant differences between mild PD individuals and healthy elderly during quiet standing before the transitional task and after completing the task. The temporal aspects describing the different transitional tasks were comparable between mild PD and healthy subjects. Moderate PD participants presented a significantly higher COP velocity after the transitional task compared to the healthy older adults (p < 0.05). Additionally, the moderate PD group showed significantly higher values for transit time relative to healthy subjects during the transitional task in all conditions (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Disease severity affects the temporal aspects of different transitional tasks in people with PD. The procedure of completing a transitional task under different conditions allowed differences between moderate and mild PD stages and healthy subjects to be observed.

Age-related changes in postural control in older women: transitional tasks in step initiation

“…Age-related changes during transitional task -transit phase In this study, all parameters (TT, S1, S2, DST) increased with age. Also, in previous studies [19] all these parameters were higher in Parkinson's Disease participants, who present well documented severe balance and gait de cits [20,21]. In addition, the longer S1, the longer the time of TUG performance.…”

Age-related changes in postural control in older women: transitional tasks in step initiation

“…The research was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of the Medical University of Warsaw (number KB/28/2014). The procedure of transitional task applied in this study have already been published in our previous studies [16,19]. Measurements of the transitional task were performed by using two force platforms (AMTI, Accugait, Watertown, MA, USA) that registered the ground reaction forces and moments at a 100 Hz sampling frequency.…”

“…The platforms (50 cm x 50 cm, height: 4.5 cm) were placed in a one line in front of each other, and the distance between the force plates was 4 cm (Figure 1). This distance was dictated by the thickness of the obstacle [16,19].…”

“…The following variables were analyzed [16,19] DST (s) -double-support time, when each foot is in contact with one of the platforms.…”

“…The trial started with 15 seconds of quiet standing, followed by an acoustic signal for subjects to transfer from one to another platform, and after the transitional phase subjects performed quiet standing until the end of the trial (Figure 1). The transitional task was executed under four different conditions: unperturbed crossing, crossing obstacle, and step-up and step-down ( Figure 2) [16,19]. A 16cm/4cm (height /width) wooden block was used as an obstacle.…”