Attenuation of Upper Body Accelerations during Gait: Piloting an Innovative Assessment Tool for Parkinson's Disease.

Christopher Buckley,Brook Galna,Lynn Rochester,Claudia Mazzà

doi:10.1155/2015/865873

Christopher Buckley, Brook Galna + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/865873

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Abstract

The objective of the current investigation was to explore whether upper body accelerations obtained during gait provide sensitive measures of postural control in people with Parkinson's disease (PD). Thirteen people with PD (70 ± 11 years) and nineteen age-matched controls (70 ± 7 years) walked continuously for two minutes while wearing three inertial sensors located on their lower back (L5), shoulder level (C7), and head. Magnitude (root mean square (RMS)), attenuation (attenuation coefficient), and smoothness (Harmonic ratios, HR) of the accelerations were calculated. People with PD demonstrated greater RMS, particularly in the mediolateral direction, but similar harmonic ratio of head accelerations compared to controls. In addition, they did not attenuate accelerations through the trunk and neck as well as control participants. Our findings indicate that measuring upper body movement provides unique information regarding postural control in PD and that poor attenuation of acceleration from the pelvis to the head contributes to impaired head control. This information is simple to measure and appears to be sensitive to PD and, consequently, is proposed to benefit researchers and clinicians.

Highlights

People with Parkinson’s disease (PD) walk with a gait pattern that is characterised by slowness, muscle rigidity, and postural instability [1,2,3]
PD participants had to be diagnosed with idiopathic PD according to the UK Parkinson’s Disease Brain Bank criteria and were excluded if they presented with significant memory impairment (Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE) ≤ 24 [24]), dementia with Lewy bodies, drug induced parkinsonism, “vascular” parkinsonism, progressive supranuclear palsy, multiple system atrophy, corticobasal degeneration, or poor command of English
No significant differences were found between the two groups in terms of anthropometric characteristics or spatiotemporal gait values

Summary

Introduction

People with Parkinson’s disease (PD) walk with a gait pattern that is characterised by slowness (bradykinesia), muscle rigidity, and postural instability [1,2,3]. The recent development of small and inexpensive wireless inertial sensors has helped facilitate routine measurement of postural control during gait in the clinic, laboratory, and the community. Emerging evidence suggests that measuring upper body acceleration during gait using inertial sensors can objectively quantify differences in gait patterns between those with and without PD [9, 10]. It has been shown that upper body accelerations are sensitive to differences between PD fallers and nonfallers [11]. These studies have revealed a deterioration of the smoothness of trunk accelerations in people with PD as measured by harmonic ratios, which was more pronounced in those with a history of falls

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