Abstract
More than half of Parkinson's disease patients (PD) report difficulty in turning. We observed different numbers of turn steps, turn times, turn types, and turn qualities in PD patients compared to healthy adults.
Although medication has an effect on motor impairments in PD, its effect on the complex walking turn task is still unclear. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of medication on the walking turn.
All subjects performed an instrumented extended Timed Up & Go Test (TUG) wearing gyro-accelerometers. The PD patients were assessed twice, first after a withdrawal of medication (OFF) and then after taking a dose of medication (ON).
The parameters calculated were duration, mean and the wave kurtosis of the angular rate. The mean angular rate and the waveform kurtosis showed significant differences between the CG and ON (p < 0.05), and the CG and OFF (p < 0.05) A significant difference between ON and OFF was found in the duration and mean angular rate parameters (p < 0.001 and p < 0.0001, respectively).
Our findings showed a difference in some turning parameters, namely duration and mean angular rate, between PD patients with and without medication. According to our results, medication decreases turn duration.
Moreover, the mean angular rate increased with medication. These results support the view that turning is positively affected by medication.