Control of the Motions of the Body's Center of Mass and End-Points of the Lower Limbs in Patients with Mild Parkinson's Disease During Obstacle-Crossing
Journal
Journal of Medical and Biological Engineering
Journal Volume
38
Journal Issue
4
Pages
534-543
Date Issued
2018
Author(s)
Abstract
Neuromuscular impairments in Parkinson’s disease (PD) alter the mechanics and control of the body, leading to an increased risk of falling during more challenging functional tasks such as obstacle-crossing. However, little is known about these changes. The current study aimed to bridge the gap by quantifying the motion of the body’s center of mass (COM) relative to the center of pressure (COP) in terms of COM-COP inclination angles (IA) and their rate of change (RCIA) in fifteen older adults with mild PD and fifteen healthy controls when crossing obstacles of heights of 10, 20 and 30% leg length. There were no between-group differences for either the leading or trailing toe clearances (p?>?0.05). With the unaffected limb leading, the PD subjects significantly increased the crossing sagittal and frontal IA, crossing sagittal RCIA, the peak RCIA, and average sagittal and frontal RCIAs during double-limb support for all obstacle heights when compared to those with the affected limb leading and those of the Controls (p?
Other Subjects
Balancing; Gait analysis; Patient monitoring; Center of pressure; Crossing pattern; Functional tasks; Group differences; Inclination angles; Neuromuscular impairments; Obstacle crossings; Parkinson; Disease control; adult; Article; biomechanics; body center of mass; body equilibrium; body height; clinical article; clinical assessment; controlled study; falling; female; human; leg length; limb movement; lower limb; male; motion; outcome assessment; Parkinson disease; patient risk; range of motion; risk assessment; risk factor; toe
Type
journal article