Objective: The aim of the study was to study the effect of Ambulosono – a music walking program on the walking ability of patients with Parkinson disease.

Background: Gait disorders of Parkinson’ s disease are often unintended changes in walking steps or speed that can be initially manifested as slowness or shuffling steps, arm-leg incoordination, hesitation or freezing. With reduced balance, patients can develop fear of falling, injurious falls and loss of functional independency. Music therapy training may have potential efficacy on these gait abnormalities.

Methods: Ten Parkinson’s disease patients with gait disorders underwent the training of the Ambulosono system, which used an accelerometer to measure gait speed and step cadence and was tied to a music program. The music play was made contingent upon the amplitudes of walking steps. When walking with steps were larger than a pre-defined amplitude music would continue to play. On the other hand, shorter steps would lead to a sudden music stoppage. An iPod with Ambulosono system is housed in a pouch strapped above the knee and connected wirelessly to headphones. We assessed the improvement in the parameters of gait of the patients after the 20 minutes training.

Results: After training with the Ambulosono system, there was a significant increase in stride length by 5.0±2.6 cm (11% improvement) and an increase in gait speed by 0.13±0.07 m/sec (16% improvement) in the patients based on a 24 meters walking test. There was also a significant reduction of music stoppage, with observation of improvement in the step cadence, arm-leg incoordination, hesitation and freezing during the walking test.

Conclusions: The Ambulosono system with a contingent music intervention is able to improve kinematic gait parameters (speed, step length, cadence) and ameliorate the disturbances (freezing, hesitation) in Parkinson’s disease.

References: 1. Chomiak T, Watts A, Meyer N, Pereira FV, Hu B. A training approach to improve stepping automaticity while dual-tasking in Parkinson’s disease: A prospective pilot study. Medicine (Baltimore) 2017;96(5):e5934. 2. Bukowska AA, Krężałek P, Mirek E, Bujas P, Marchewka A. Neurologic Music Therapy Training for Mobility and Stability Rehabilitation with Parkinson’s Disease – A Pilot Study. Front Hum Neurosci 2016;9:710.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/ambulosono-a-music-walking-program-improves-gait-disorders-in-parkinsons-disease/