The relationship between asymmetries in reactive and anticipatory balance control in Parkinson's disease patients

Description

Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients show asymmetries in balance control during quiet stance and in response to perturbations (i.e., reactive balance control). Furthermore, PD patients show a reduced ability to anticipate self-induced disturbances.

Objective: To assess the relationship between asymmetries in reactive and anticipatory balance control in PD patients.

Methods: 14 PD patients and 10 matched controls participated. Ground reaction forces and moments as well as body kinematics were recorded to estimate ankle torques and body center of mass excursions. Reactive balance control (RBC) was investigated by applying external platform and force perturbations and relating the response of the left and right ankle torque to the body sway angle at the excited frequencies. Anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) were investigated by determining the increase in the left and right ankle torque just before the subjects released a force that they exerted with the hands against a force sensor at shoulder level. The symmetry ratio between the contribution of the left and right ankle was used to express the asymmetry in reactive (SRRBC) and anticipatory (SRABC) balance control.

Results: PD patients were more asymmetric in anticipatory (p = 0.026) and reactive balance control (p = 0.004) compared to healthy subjects. SRRBC was signifi cantly (p = 0.003) related to SRABC in patients with PD.

Conclusions: Asymmetries in reactive and anticipatory balance control seemed to be of the same magnitude in PD patients. Future studies should investigate the infl uence of static balance control asymmetries on gait initiation and the quality of the step.

Period	21 May 2015
Event title	Third Congress on NeuroRehabilitation and Neural Repair: From science to evidence-based practice
Event type	Conference
Conference number	3
Location	Maastricht , Netherlands
Degree of Recognition	International