Objective: To measure the force of paravertebral muscle of PD patients with camptocormia compared to PD patients without camptocormia and healthy controls to assess the contribution of muscle weakness to camptocormia.

Background: Camptocormia (CC) is a non-fixed involuntary forward bending of the trunk occurring during PD and muscular diseases. It is often combined with severe back-pain and is highly disabling. We propose that this pathological bending harms the paravertebral muscles and reduces their function.

Methods: 13 patients with CC and PD (PD+CC)), 12 patients with PD without camptocormia (PD-CC) and 15 age-matched healthy controls (HC) were included. Using a dynamometer (back-check®) the maximal extensional and flexional force of the trunk of each group was examined. The patients were encouraged to push as forceful as possible. The highest value out of three trials was taken.

Results: The maximal extensional force of PD+CC is significantly reduced compared to HC (23.3 kg versus 53.3 kg, p 0.004). Extension force is also lower for PD+CC than for PD-CC (35.7 kg) but not significant. For trunk flexion, the forces are generally smaller than for extension and the mean forces are lowest for PD+CC, followed by PD-CC and HC. Differences are not significant.

Conclusions: To our knowledge this is the first study assessing trunk-muscle force in CC. Our finding of reduced muscle force is compatible with the already described pathological changes of muscle MRI, and biopsy pointing towards degeneration of muscle fibres, a loss of type-II-fibres and sEMG examinations with a reduced functional reserve. Change of back muscle force may contribute to the development of CC.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/examination-of-paravertebral-muscular-force-in-camptocormia/