Session Information
Date: Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Session Title: Phenomenology and clinical assessment of movement disorders
Session Time: 12:00pm-1:30pm
Location: Exhibit Hall located in Hall B, Level 2
Objective: To compare gait performance across Parkinson’s disease stages.
Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterized with changes in locomotion and posture, which are associated with an increased risk of falls and decreased independence. The GAITRite system is a useful tool to measure multiple spatio-temporal components of gait. However, a lack of its in-clinic use exists.
Methods: A cross-sectional study of 252 consecutive PD patients who performed the GAITRite analysis during a clinic visit from the period of Jan-Nov 2013 was conducted. Patients were divided into group 1: mild-moderate stage (H&Y 1-3, n=228), and group 2: severe disease (H&Y 4-5, n=24, as few severe PD patients could perform the test). An independent samples t-student test was used to compare clinically relevant GAITRite measurements between groups.
Results: 71% of patients were male, 94% were Caucasian, 21% had DBS (80% STN, 18% GPi, 2% VIM; 8% right sided, 29% left sided and 63% bilateral). There were no statistically significant differences in baseline/demographic characteristics between the two severity groups (except those related to disease progression like UPDRS-III). PD patients with advanced disease produced significantly lower cadence (92.8cycles/min ±16.6 vs. 106.5cycles/min ±10.5, p=0. 001), left-sided step length (42.7cm ±14.5 vs. 60.1cm ±12.6, p<0.0001), right-sided step length (45.3cm ±14.5 vs. 60.5cm ±12.2, p<0.0001), velocity (69.6cm/sec ±29.1 vs. 107.5cm/sec ±24.5, p<0.0001) and functional ambulation score (69.8 ±17.1 vs. 89.5 ±14.4, p<0.0001). No significant differences were observed in the step time, heel-to-heel base support or single support time.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that cadence, step length and velocity are significantly lower in advanced PD patients. These measurements can be useful for clinicians as indicators of disease progression and may allow important discussions about ambulation and safety.
Submitted to AAN poster session awaiting response. Some parts of the data were published previously in an article in PLoS One as an original research article.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
W. Deeb, D. Martinez-Ramirez, J. Giugni, M. Okun, C. Hass. GAITRite comparison between Parkinson’s disease stages [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2016; 31 (suppl 2). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/gaitrite-comparison-between-parkinsons-disease-stages/. Accessed May 24, 2025.« Back to 2016 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/gaitrite-comparison-between-parkinsons-disease-stages/