Parkinson's disease (PD) patients experience postural instability as a primary motor symptom (Parkinson, 1817). The majority of PD patients use L-dopa to treat motor symptoms associated with the disease; however, extended use of L-dopa can cause involuntary movement production termed L-dopa induced dyskinesia (LID) (Bezard et al., 2001). Recently, researchers have speculated that postural sway variability (CoP variability) is associated with clinically unapparent LID (Rocchi et al., 2004). This experiment sought to determine the relationship between CoP variability and LID in PD patients. Eight PD patients on L-dopa medication and eight age matched neurologically healthy control subjects performed a precision aiming task where we manipulated the orientation, size and distance of the target. We recorded CoP fluctuations using two force plates and kinematics of the head, torso, arm and leg segments using the VICON 3-D motion capture system. The results indicate that decreased joint coordination of the head, arm and torso segments contribute to greater CoP variability in PD patients, particularly in the ML direction. Our results also reveal that increased task difficulty by manipulation of target distance increases movement amplitude, and consequently CoP variability. These findings suggest a causal relationship between LID and CoP variability in PD patients.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/27701 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Lefebvre, Marie Julie Christine |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 89 p. |
Page generated in 0.0013 seconds