Category: Parkinson's Disease: Disease mechanisms
Objective: to explore the relationship between dopaminergic deficits and digital gait parameters alterations in de novo PD and iRBD
Background: gait alterations are common features in drug-naïve Parkinson’s disease (PD) and subtle gait changes have been described in idiopathic REM sleep disorders (iRBD), a condition at risk for developing a-synucleinopathies.
Method: Sixty patients entered the study, namely 44 de novo PD and 16 iRBD, as well as 65 matched control subjects. They underwent a comprehensive motor, cognitive and digital gait assessment in normal, fast and dual-task conditions. All patients, underwent 123I-FP-CIT-SPECT imaging, evaluating standard striatal region-of-interest (ROI) and whole -brain voxel-wise analyses. The relationship between digital motor parameters in different conditions and dopamine binding was analysed using ROI-based and voxel-based analysis.
Results: PD had shorter step length and higher step time in all conditions in comparison to controls and shorter step length in normal pace and in cognitive dual task in comparison to iRBD. No correlation between digital parameters in normal and fast speed condition and dopamine depletion was observed in PD/iRBD. Conversely, both ROI-based and voxel-wise analyses revealed a positive correlation between step length in dual task conditions and basal ganglia dopaminergic deficits in both PD and iRBD.
Conclusion: our results suggest that dual task condition unmask the correlation between dopaminergic deficits and step length in both early and prodromal stages of alpha-synucleinopathies.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
A. Pilotto, C. Zatti, A. Rizzardi, A. Galli, C. Hansen, J. Geritz, R. Rominjnders, E. Schaeffer, M. Catania, A. Lupini, T. Comunale, E. Premi, M. Pasolini, S. Lucchini, F. Brertagna, B. Paghera, S. Caminiti, D. Perani, D. Berg, W. Maetzler, A. Padovani. Dual-task gait digital assessment unmask the association between dopaminergic deficits and gait parameters in early and prodromal Parkinson’s Disease [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2025; 40 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/dual-task-gait-digital-assessment-unmask-the-association-between-dopaminergic-deficits-and-gait-parameters-in-early-and-prodromal-parkinsons-disease/. Accessed October 5, 2025.« Back to 2025 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/dual-task-gait-digital-assessment-unmask-the-association-between-dopaminergic-deficits-and-gait-parameters-in-early-and-prodromal-parkinsons-disease/