Objective: To find the presence of possible correlations between upper extremity bradykinesia and speech variables in different medication conditions in a cohort of advanced Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients.

Background: Few studies have assessed the presence of possible correlation between speech variables and bradykinesia in PD patients.

Method: Retrospective data from advanced PD patients before and after an acute levodopa challenge were collected. Each patient was assessed through a neurological evaluation with the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) (total scores, subscores and items) and a timed test (tapping test for 20 seconds) to quantify upper limb bradykinesia. A perceptual-acoustic analysis of speech was also performed including several quantitative parameters (i.e., maximum phonation time [MPT]; Shimmer Local dB). The Pearson’s correlation coefficient was applied to find correlations between speech variables and tapping rate.

Results: 53 PD patients (males: 34; disease duration: 10.66 [sd 4.37] years; age at PD onset: 49.81 years [sd 6.12]) were included. In the defined-OFF condition, MPT of sustained phonation correlated positively with both bilateral mean (p= 0.044, r-value: .299) and left (p= 0.033, r-value: .314) tapping. In the defined-ON condition patients with a longer MPT performed well the tapping test with both arms.

Conclusion: These results confirm the presence of possible correlations between upper extremity bradykinesia and speech acoustic variables in a cohort of advanced PD patients, probably due to common pathophysiological mechanisms.

This abstract was previously presented at the 9° LIMPE-DISMOV Congress; Padova, Italy; 4-6 May 2023.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/correlations-between-bradykinesia-and-acoustic-speech-variables-in-advanced-parkinsons-disease/