Abstract
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor clinical alterations among others. Postural problems have serious consequences for patients, not only limiting their daily life but also increasing some risks, like the risk of fall. Inadequate postural control and postural instability is a major problem in PD patients. A Virtual Motor Rehabilitation System (VMR) has been tested in patients with PD in the intervention period. Our purpose was to analyze the evolutionofthe spatial postural control during the intervention period, to see if there are any changes caused precisely by this intervention. Ten people with PD carried out 15 virtual rehabilitation sessions. We tested a groundbreaking system based on Virtual Motor Rehabilitation in two periods of time (baseline evaluation and final evaluation). In the training sessions, the participants performed a customizable treatment using a low-cost system, the Active Balance Rehabilitation system (ABAR). We stored the pressure performed by the participants every five hundredths of a second, and we analyzed the patients' pressure when they maintained their body on the left, on the right, and in the center in sitting position. Our system was able to measure postural control in every patient in each of the virtual rehabilitation sessions. There are no significant differences in the performance of postural control in any of the positions evaluated throughout the sessions. Moreover, the results show a trend to an improvement in all positions. This improvement is especially remarkable in the left/right positions, which are the most important positions in order to avoid problems such as the risk of fall. With regard to the suitability of the ABAR system, we have found outstanding results in enjoyment, success, clarity, and helpfulness. Although PD is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, the results demonstrate that patients with PD maintain or even improve their postural control in all positions. We think that the main factor influencing these results is that patients use more of their available cognitive processing to improve their postural control. The ABAR system allows us to make this assumption because the system requires the continuous attention of patients, promoting cognitive processing.
Highlights
Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a chronic and a progressive neurodegenerative dysfunction which shows the loss of cells in the substantia nigra of the basal ganglia and produces alterations in the motor system [1]
Our study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Clínica de Aragón (CEIC), Zaragoza, Spain and was performed following the ethical standards of Declaration of Helsinki (DoH) [57]
The results obtained in patients with PD in Baseline and Final Evaluation have not shown any statistical difference on the left, on the right, and in the central position
Summary
Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a chronic and a progressive neurodegenerative dysfunction which shows the loss of cells in the substantia nigra of the basal ganglia and produces alterations in the motor system [1]. The prevalence of PD in developed countries is around 0.5-1% in people ranging from 65 to years old, with a significant increase of 3% in people over years old [2]. In Asia (China and Taiwan), the incidence rates were between 1.5 and 8.7 per 100,000 people per year, with an increase of 94.5 per 100,000 and 100.2 per 100,000 in people ranging from 70 to 79 years old [7]. The estimated incidence for the year 2030 is 8.7 million people globally [8] Due to these astonishing future incidence rates, it is necessary to develop novel techniques in the rehabilitation process
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