title: Segmental progression of cardinal motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease: a pilot study suggesting a practical approach to rate disease course in the early stages.
abstract: Little is known about the anatomical progression over the body segments of extrapyramidal signs in Parkinson's disease (PD); furthermore a great unmet need is the availability of instruments able to detect disease progression, even in the early phase. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that assessing topographical distribution of the cardinal motor features of PD may significantly improve the evaluation of disease progression in the early stages. Forty-four drug-naïve PD patients were included in the study. Presence or absence of bradykinesia, rest tremor and rigidity was derived from Unified Parkinson's disease rating scale part III (UPDRS-III) in five different anatomical segments: axial, right and left upper- and lower-limbs. Based on this approach, four new scores were computed evaluating the anatomical spread of the cardinal motor symptoms of PD on the five body segments over a 18-month follow-up period. The four new scores included: the Bradykinesia Segmental Score, the Tremor Segmental Score, the Rigidity Segmental Score, measuring the occurrence of each motor symptom in different segments and the Combined Segmental Score evaluating the occurrence of any motor symptom in different anatomical regions. Data were analyzed using a repeated measures analysis of variance. The Combined Segmental Score showed a significant progression over time whereas the Hoehn and Yahr and the UPDRS-III scores did not. We suggest that a simple approach evaluating the anatomical distribution of motor symptoms and their progression over the body segments may be a useful complement to the classical rating tools to assess progression in early PD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurological Sciences, University Federico II, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Picillo
authors.forename: Marianna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Amboni
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Erro
authors.forename: Carmine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vitale
authors.forename: Katia
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Longo
authors.forename: Maria Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Pellecchia
authors.forename: Autilia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cozzolino
authors.forename: Marcello
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moccia
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Allocca
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Barone
mesh_terms: D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018476:Hypokinesia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009127:Muscle Rigidity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D009460:Neurologic Examination / Q000379:methods*; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014202:Tremor / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology
keywords: Motor symptoms; Parkinson's disease; Progression