title: Quantitative gait analysis in patients with vascular parkinsonism.
abstract: Until now the clinical criteria for the diagnosis of vascular parkinsonism (VP) have been disputed. The purpose of the present study is to investigate whether quantitative gait analysis can differentiate between the gait pattern of patients with VP and the gait pattern of patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD). Twelve patients with VP, 12 patients with PD, and 10 neurologically nondiseased controls were examined by quantitative gait analysis. Patients with VP, having a similar gait velocity and stride length, showed relatively preserved arm swing with markedly more anteflexion in the shoulder on the forward sway of the arm swing than patients with PD. Patients with VP also showed less flexion dystonic posture of the elbow, hip, knee, and trunk than did patients with PD. There was no significant difference in the excursions and coordination of arm swing in the patients with VP compared with the control group. Both patient groups showed reduced leg movements, reduced hip extension, and reduced knee flexion and extension as compared with the controls.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University Hospital Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Zijlmans
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Poels
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Duysens
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van der Straaten
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Thien
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: van't Hof
authors.forename: H O
authors.initials: HO
authors.lastname: Thijssen
authors.forename: M W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Horstink
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001835:Body Weight; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D005684:Gait; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014743:Videotape Recording