scholarly journals Dancing With Parkinson's Disease: The SI-ROBOTICS Study Protocol

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberta Bevilacqua ◽  
Marco Benadduci ◽  
Anna Rita Bonfigli ◽  
Giovanni Renato Riccardi ◽  
Giovanni Melone ◽  
...  

Introduction: Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the most frequent causes of disability among older people, characterized by motor disorders, rigidity, and balance problems. Recently, dance has started to be considered an effective exercise for people with PD. In particular, Irish dancing, along with tango and different forms of modern dance, may be a valid strategy to motivate people with PD to perform physical activity. The present protocol aims to implement and evaluate a rehabilitation program based on a new system called “SI-ROBOTICS,” composed of multiple technological components, such as a social robotic platform embedded with an artificial vision setting, a dance-based game, environmental and wearable sensors, and an advanced AI reasoner module.Methods and Analysis: For this study, 20 patients with PD will be recruited. Sixteen therapy sessions of 50 min will be conducted (two training sessions per week, for 8 weeks), involving two patients at a time. Evaluation will be primarily focused on the acceptability of the SI-ROBOTICS system. Moreover, the analysis of the impact on the patients' functional status, gait, balance, fear of falling, cardio-respiratory performance, motor symptoms related to PD, and quality of life, will be considered as secondary outcomes. The trial will start in November 2021 and is expected to end by April 2022.Discussions: The study aims to propose and evaluate a new approach in PD rehabilitation, focused on the use of Irish dancing, together with a new technological system focused on helping the patient perform the dance steps and on collecting kinematic and performance parameters used both by the physiotherapist (for the evaluation and planning of the subsequent sessions) and by the system (to outline the levels of difficulty of the exercise).Ethics and Dissemination: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the IRCCS INRCA. It was recorded in ClinicalTrials.gov on the number NCT05005208. The study findings will be used for publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals and presentations in scientific meetings.

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria H. Nilsson ◽  
Gun-Marie Hariz ◽  
Susanne Iwarsson ◽  
Peter Hagell

Although fear of falling (FOF) is common in people with Parkinson's disease (PD), there is a lack of research investigating potential predictors of FOF. This study explored the impact of motor, nonmotor, and demographic factors as well as complications of drug therapy on FOF among people with PD. Postal survey data (including the Falls Efficacy Scale, FES) from 154 nondemented people with PD were analyzed using multiple regression analyses. Five significant independent variables were identified explaining 74% of the variance in FES scores. The strongest contributing factor to FOF was walking difficulties (explaining 68%), followed by fatigue, turning hesitations, need for help in daily activities, and motor fluctuations. Exploring specific aspects of walking identified three significant variables explaining 59% of FOF: balance problems, limited ability to climb stairs, and turning hesitations. These results have implications for rehabilitation clinicians and suggest that walking ability is the primary target in order to reduce FOF. Specifically, balance, climbing stairs, and turning seem to be of particular importance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 1301-1314
Author(s):  
Joana Beisl Ramos ◽  
Gonçalo S. Duarte ◽  
Raquel Bouça-Machado ◽  
Margherita Fabbri ◽  
Tiago A. Mestre ◽  
...  

Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurological condition characterized by the development of daily disabling symptoms. Although the architecture and design of a PD patient’s environment can hinder or facilitate full participation in daily activities, their putative role in the management of these patients has received little attention to date. Objective: We conducted a systematic review to evaluate the evidence of architectural and design features in the management of people with PD. Methods: An electronic database search of observational and experimental studies was conducted in MEDLINE and Embase from inception to May 2020, with two independent reviewers identifying the studies. Falls, fear of falling, postural instability, gait impairment/disability, and functional mobility were our outcomes of interest. Results: Thirty-six studies were included, among which nineteen were observational and seventeen were experimental studies (overall participants = 2,965). Pavement characteristics, notably unstable surfaces and level differences, were found to be a major cause of falling. Ground-based obstacles and confined/narrowed spaces were found to disturb gait, increase postural instability, and decrease functional mobility. Housing type did not appear to increase risk of falling, nor to significantly explain concerns about falling. Conclusion: Findings suggest a need to adjust architectural features of the surrounding space to ensure appropriate care and provide a safe environment to PD patients. More evidence about the impact of such modifications on PD outcomes is needed.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathrin Rothermich ◽  
Mackenzie Rountree ◽  
Julia Scott ◽  
Madeline Funke ◽  
Emily Bishop ◽  
...  

Besides motor symptoms, people with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) often exhibit social cognition difficulties. The assessment of social cognition in early PD is crucial, as these deficits may impact patients' social interactions and quality of life. The current study used naturalistic, dynamic video clips to examine the ability of individuals with idiopathic PD to perceive speaker intentions in comparison with healthy controls (HC). Neuropsychological evaluation of the PD patients was conducted using the Cognitive Linguistic Quick Test (CLQT). Video stimuli were taken from the Relational Inference in Social Communication database (RISC; Rothermich & Pell, 2015) and contained literal, sarcastic, and teasing scenes. The participant’s task was to identify the speaker’s belief, i.e., if they were sincere or insincere. The results show that in general, all participants had a harder time identifying nonliteral statements such as teasing as insincere when compared to literal statements. A group analysis demonstrated a marginally significant effect between people with PD and HCs, showing that individuals with PD were less accurate in recognizing social intent compared to HC. This difference was possibly driven by changes in cognitive abilities due to the progression of PD. Indeed, analyses for the PD group revealed positive correlations between several cognitive domains, such as attention and memory, and performance on the speaker belief task. Taken together, our study sheds light on the relationship between cognitive mechanisms and social perception impairments in PD and supports the development of targeted tools for diagnosing and treating these impairments.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 1601-1610
Author(s):  
Jaimie A. Roper ◽  
Abigail C. Schmitt ◽  
Hanzhi Gao ◽  
Ying He ◽  
Samuel Wu ◽  
...  

Background: The impact of concurrent osteoarthritis on mobility and mortality in individuals with Parkinson’s disease is unknown. Objective: We sought to understand to what extent osteoarthritis severity influenced mobility across time and how osteoarthritis severity could affect mortality in individuals with Parkinson’s disease. Methods: In a retrospective observational longitudinal study, data from the Parkinson’s Foundation Quality Improvement Initiative was analyzed. We included 2,274 persons with Parkinson’s disease. The main outcomes were the effects of osteoarthritis severity on functional mobility and mortality. The Timed Up and Go test measured functional mobility performance. Mortality was measured as the osteoarthritis group effect on survival time in years. Results: More individuals with symptomatic osteoarthritis reported at least monthly falls compared to the other groups (14.5% vs. 7.2% without reported osteoarthritis and 8.4% asymptomatic/minimal osteoarthritis, p = 0.0004). The symptomatic group contained significantly more individuals with low functional mobility (TUG≥12 seconds) at baseline (51.5% vs. 29.0% and 36.1%, p < 0.0001). The odds of having low functional mobility for individuals with symptomatic osteoarthritis was 1.63 times compared to those without reported osteoarthritis (p < 0.0004); and was 1.57 times compared to those with asymptomatic/minimal osteoarthritis (p = 0.0026) after controlling pre-specified covariates. Similar results hold at the time of follow-up while changes in functional mobility were not significant across groups, suggesting that osteoarthritis likely does not accelerate the changes in functional mobility across time. Coexisting symptomatic osteoarthritis and Parkinson’s disease seem to additively increase the risk of mortality (p = 0.007). Conclusion: Our results highlight the impact and potential additive effects of symptomatic osteoarthritis in persons with Parkinson’s disease.


Author(s):  
Suman Rohilla ◽  
Ranju Bansal ◽  
Puneet Chauhan ◽  
Sonja Kachler ◽  
Karl-Norbert Klotz

Background: Adenosine receptors (AR) have emerged as competent and innovative nondopaminergic targets for the development of potential drug candidates and thus constitute an effective and safer treatment approach for Parkinson’s disease (PD). Xanthine derivatives are considered as potential candidates for the treatment Parkinson’s disease due to their potent A2A AR antagonistic properties. Objective: The objectives of the work are to study the impact of substituting N7-position of 8-m/pchloropropoxyphenylxanthine structure on in vitro binding affinity of compounds with various AR subtypes, in vivo antiparkinsonian activity and binding modes of newly synthesized xanthines with A2A AR in molecular docking studies. Methods: Several new 7-substituted 8-m/p-chloropropoxyphenylxanthine analogues have been prepared. Adenosine receptor binding assays were performed to study the binding interactions with various subtypes and perphenazine induced rat catatonia model was used for antiparkinsonian activity. Molecular docking studies were performed using Schrödinger molecular modeling interface. Results: 8-para-substituted xanthine 9b bearing an N7-propyl substituent displayed the highest affinity towards A2A AR (Ki = 0.75 µM) with moderate selectivity versus other AR subtypes. 7-Propargyl analogue 9d produced significantly longlasting antiparkinsonian effects and also produced potent and selective binding affinity towards A2A AR. In silico docking studies further highlighted the crucial structural components required to develop xanthine derived potential A2A AR ligands as antiparkinsonian agents. Conclusion: A new series of 7-substituted 8-m/p-chloropropoxyphenylxanthines having good affinity for A2A AR and potent antiparkinsonian activity has been developed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gloria Vergara-Diaz ◽  
Jean-Francois Daneault ◽  
Federico Parisi ◽  
Chen Admati ◽  
Christina Alfonso ◽  
...  

AbstractParkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor and non-motor symptoms. Dyskinesia and motor fluctuations are complications of PD medications. An objective measure of on/off time with/without dyskinesia has been sought for some time because it would facilitate the titration of medications. The objective of the dataset herein presented is to assess if wearable sensor data can be used to generate accurate estimates of limb-specific symptom severity. Nineteen subjects with PD experiencing motor fluctuations were asked to wear a total of five wearable sensors on both forearms and shanks, as well as on the lower back. Accelerometer data was collected for four days, including two laboratory visits lasting 3 to 4 hours each while the remainder of the time was spent at home and in the community. During the laboratory visits, subjects performed a battery of motor tasks while clinicians rated limb-specific symptom severity. At home, subjects were instructed to use a smartphone app that guided the periodic performance of a set of motor tasks.


2021 ◽  
pp. 000313482198903
Author(s):  
Mitsuru Ishizuka ◽  
Norisuke Shibuya ◽  
Kazutoshi Takagi ◽  
Hiroyuki Hachiya ◽  
Kazuma Tago ◽  
...  

Objective To explore the impact of appendectomy history on emergence of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Background Although there are several studies to investigate the relationship between appendectomy history and emergence of PD, the results are still controversial. Methods We performed a comprehensive electronic search of the literature (the Cochrane Library, PubMed, and the Web of Science) up to April 2020 to identify studies that had employed databases allowing comparison of emergence of PD between patients with and those without appendectomy history. To integrate the impact of appendectomy history on emergence of PD, a meta-analysis was performed using random-effects models to calculate the risk ratio (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for the selected studies, and heterogeneity was analyzed using I2 statistics. Results Four studies involving a total of 6 080 710 patients were included in this meta-analysis. Among 1 470 613 patients with appendectomy history, 1845 (.13%) had emergences of PD during the observation period, whereas among 4 610 097 patients without appendectomy history, 6743 (.15%) had emergences of PD during the observation period. These results revealed that patients with appendectomy history and without appendectomy had almost the same emergence of PD (RR, 1.02; 95% CI, .87-1.20; P = .83; I2 = 87%). Conclusion This meta-analysis has demonstrated that there was no significant difference in emergence of PD between patients with and those without appendectomy history.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Jonathan R. Isaacson ◽  
Salima Brillman ◽  
Nisha Chhabria ◽  
Stuart H. Isaacson

Background: The diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is primarily clinical, but in cases of diagnostic uncertainty, evaluation of nigrostriatal dopaminergic degeneration (NSDD) by imaging of the dopamine transporter using DaTscan with single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) brain imaging may be helpful. Objective/Methods: In the current paper, we describe clinical scenarios for which DaTscan imaging was used in a prospective case series of 201 consecutive patients in whom a movement disorder specialist ordered DaTscan imaging to clarify NSDD. We describe the impact of DaTscan results on changing or confirming pre-DaTscan clinical diagnosis and on post-DaTscan treatment changes. Results/Conclusion: DaTscan imaging can be useful in several clinical scenarios to determine if NSDD is present. These include in patients with early subtle symptoms, suboptimal response to levodopa, prominent action tremor, drug-induced parkinsonism, and in patients with lower extremity or other less common parkinsonism clinical presentations. We also found DaTscan imaging to be useful to determine underlying NSDD in patients with PD diagnosis for 3-5 years but without apparent clinical progression or development of motor fluctuations. Overall, in 201 consecutive patients with clinically questionable NSDD, DaTscan was abnormal in 58.7% of patients, normal in 37.8%, and inconclusive in 3.5%. DaTscan imaging changed clinical diagnosis in 39.8% of patients and led to medication therapy changes in 70.1% of patients.


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