Objective: The validity of parameters for quantitative assessment of gait movement characteristics specific to Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients was tested with data from STN-DBS On/Off.

Background: The main motor dysfunctions in PD patients are tremor, muscle rigidity, akinesia and postural instability. In the clinical diagnosis, the gait test is first observed by a physician, who often uses gait speed, stride length and cadence. None of the parameters of the general gait analysis directly represent the kinematic features of PD.

Method: The 3D positional coordinates of markers attached to 22 locations on the body of 5 PD patients (48-64 years old, 4 males and 1 female) were calculated from their walking motion videos. From the time series and frequency analysis of the position, velocity, acceleration, and angle of each marker, the characteristic parameters of locomotion such as walking speed, stride length, hand width, toe height change, and swing were obtained. The changes in the parameters were evaluated in the DBS on/off condition.

Results: The parameters assessing gait speed and limb swing were significantly reduced when DBS was turned off. In subjects who showed tremor during the inspection, a clear difference was observed between DBS on and off for the parameters corresponding to tremor.

Conclusion: The quantitative evaluation parameters developed in this study allow us to quantify the unique motor characteristics of PD patients. This method can quantitatively and multidimensionally capture the gait disturbance patterns unique to PD patients during DBS On/Off, and is therefore useful for the prognostic evaluation of STN-DBS surgery and for maintaining motivation in rehabilitation.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/validity-of-quantitative-parameters-for-analyzing-gait-motion-in-pd-patients-after-stn-dbs/