Background: Gait disturbance accompanies many neurodegenerative diseases; it is characteristic for Parkinson's disease (PD). Treatment of advanced PD often includes deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus. Regarding gait, previous studies have reported non-significant or conflicting results, possibly related to methodological limitations.
Objective: The objective of this prospective study was to assess the effects of DBS on biomechanical parameters of gait in patients with PD.
Methods: Twenty-one patients with advanced PD participated in this prospective study. Gait was examined in all patients using the Zebris FDM-T pressure-sensitive treadmill (Isny, Germany) before DBS implantation and after surgery immediately, further immediately after the start of neurostimulation, and 3 months after neurostimulator activation. We assessed spontaneous gait on a moving treadmill at different speeds. Step length, stance phase of both lower limbs, double-stance phase, and cadence were evaluated.
Results: In this study, step length increased, allowing the cadence to decrease. Double-stance phase duration, that is, the most sensitive parameter of gait quality and unsteadiness, was reduced, in gait at a speed of 4.5 km/h and in the narrow-based gaits at 1 km/h (tandem gait), which demonstrates improvement.
Conclusion: This study suggests positive effects of DBS treatment on gait in PD patients. Improvement was observed in several biomechanical parameters of gait.
Keywords: biomechanical parameters of gait; deep brain stimulation; gait; pressure-sensitive treadmill; subthalamic nucleus.
Copyright © 2020 Navratilova, Krobot, Otruba, Nevrly, Krahulik, Kolar, Kolarova, Kaiserova, Mensikova, Vastik, Kurcova and Kanovsky.