Contribution of a Trunk Accelerometer System to the Characterization of Gait in Patients With Mild-to-Moderate Parkinson's Disease

Objective: Gait disturbances like shuffling and short steps are obvious at visual observation in patients with advanced Parkinson´s disease (PD). However, quantitative methods are increasingly used to evaluate the wide range of gait abnormalities that may occur over the disease course. The goal of this study was to test the ability of a trunk accelerometer system to quantify the effects of PD on several gait features when walking at self-selected speed. Methods: We recruited 96 subjects split into three age-matched groups: 32 healthy controls (HC), 32 PD patients at Hoehn and Yahr stage <; II (PD-1), and 32 patients at Hoehn and Yahr stage II-III (PD-2). The following outcomes were extracted from the signals of the triaxial accelerometer worn on the lower back: stride length, cadence, regularity index, symmetry index, and mechanical powers yielded in the cranial-caudal, anteroposterior, and medial-lateral directions. Walking speed was measured using a stopwatch. Results: Besides other gait features, the PD-1 and the PD-2 groups showed significantly reduced stride length normalized to height (p <; 0.02) and symmetry index (p <; 0.009) in comparison to the HC. Regularity index was the only feature significantly decreased in the PD-2 group as compared with the two other groups (p <; 0.01). The clinical relevance of this finding was supported by significant correlations with mobility and gait scales (r is around -0.3; p <; 0.05). Conclusion: Gait quantified by a trunk accelerometer may provide clinically useful information for the screening and follow-up of PD patients.