TY  - JOUR
A1  - Dipaola, Mariangela
A1  - Pavan, Esteban E.
A1  - Cattaneo, Andrea
A1  - Frazzitta, Giuseppe
A1  - Pezzoli, Gianni
A1  - Cavallari, Paolo
A1  - Frigo, Carlo A.
A1  - Isaias, Ioannis U.
T1  - Mechanical Energy Recovery during Walking in Patients with Parkinson Disease
JF  - PLoS ONE
N2  - The mechanisms of mechanical energy recovery during gait have been thoroughly investigated in healthy subjects, but never described in patients with Parkinson disease (PD). The aim of this study was to investigate whether such mechanisms are preserved in PD patients despite an altered pattern of locomotion. We consecutively enrolled 23 PD patients (mean age 64±9 years) with bilateral symptoms (H&Y ≥II) if able to walk unassisted in medication-off condition (overnight suspension of all dopaminergic drugs). Ten healthy subjects (mean age 62±3 years) walked both at their ‘preferred’ and ‘slow’ speeds, to match the whole range of PD velocities. Kinematic data were recorded by means of an optoelectronic motion analyzer. For each stride we computed spatio-temporal parameters, time-course and range of motion (ROM) of hip, knee and ankle joint angles. We also measured kinetic (Wk), potential (W\(_{p}\)), total (W\(_{totCM}\)) energy variations and the energy recovery index (ER). Along with PD progression, we found a significant correlation of W\(_{totCM}\) and W\(_{p}\) with knee ROM and in particular with knee extension in terminal stance phase. W\(_{k}\) and ER were instead mainly related to gait velocity. In PD subjects, the reduction of knee ROM significantly diminished both W\(_{p}\) and W\(_{totCM}\). Rehabilitation treatments should possibly integrate passive and active mobilization of knee to prevent a reduction of gait-related energetic components.
KW  - Parkinson disease
KW  - mechanical energy
KW  - kinematics
KW  - velocity
KW  - hip
KW  - gait analysis
KW  - walking
KW  - knees
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-179739
VL  - 11
IS  - 6
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Isaias, Ioannis U.
A1  - Volkmann, Jens
A1  - Marzegan, Alberto
A1  - Marotta, Giorgio
A1  - Cavallari, Paolo
A1  - Pezzoli, Gianni
T1  - The Influence of Dopaminergic Striatal Innervation on Upper Limb Locomotor Synergies
JF  - PLoS One
N2  - To determine the role of striatal dopaminergic innervation on upper limb synergies during walking, we measured arm kinematics in 13 subjects with Parkinson disease. Patients were recruited according to several inclusion criteria to represent the best possible in vivo model of dopaminergic denervation. Of relevance, we included only subjects with normal spatio-temporal parameters of the stride and gait speed to avoid an impairment of upper limbs locomotor synergies as a consequence of gait impairment per se. Dopaminergic innervation of the striatum was measured by FP-CIT and SPECT. All patients showed a reduction of gait-associated arms movement. No linear correlation was found between arm ROM reduction and contralateral dopaminergic putaminal innervation loss. Still, a partition analysis revealed a 80% chance of reduced arm ROM when putaminal dopamine content loss was >47%. A significant correlation was described between the asymmetry indices of the swinging of the two arms and dopaminergic striatal innervation. When arm ROM was reduced, we found a positive correlation between upper-lower limb phase shift modulation ( at different gait velocities) and striatal dopaminergic innervation. These findings are preliminary evidence that dopaminergic striatal tone plays a modulatory role in upper-limb locomotor synergies and upper-lower limb coupling while walking at different velocities.
KW  - pet
KW  - Parkinsons disease
KW  - basal ganglia
KW  - spinal-cord
KW  - walking
KW  - gait
KW  - arm
KW  - coordination
KW  - movements
Y1  - 2012
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-133976
VL  - 7
IS  - 12
ER  -