At a glance
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Rehabilitation of Parkinsonian Gait in Body Weight Support Combined With Treadmill: a Controlled Study
In Brief
A clinical study evaluating Treadmill with partial weight unload and Traditional PT rehabilitation treatment for Parkinson's Disease. Completed, enrolled 36 participants.
Detailed Summary
Gait disorders represent disabling symptoms in Parkinson's Disease (PD). The effectiveness of rehabilitation treatment with Body Weight Support Treadmill Training (BWSTT) has been demonstrated in patients with stroke and spinal cord injuries, but limited data is available in PD. The aim of the study is to investigate the efficacy of BWSTT in the rehabilitation of gait in PD patients. Thirty-six PD inpatients were enrolled and performed rehabilitation treatment for 4 weeks, with daily sessions. Subjects were randomly divided into two groups: both groups underwent daily 40-minute sessions of traditional physiokinesitherapy followed by 20-minute sessions of overground gait training (Control group) or BWSTT (BWSTT group). The efficacy of BWSTT was evaluated with clinical scales and Computerized Gait Analysis (CGA). Patients were tested at baseline (T0) and at the end of the 4-week rehabilitation period (T1).
Study Details
Timeline
Interventions
10-minute treadmill walk with a support corresponding to 20% of his/her own weight, followed by a 5-minute rest and a second 10-minute session on the treadmill with a support corresponding to 10% of his/her own weight. In the initial treadmill session, the starting speed of the treadmill was set to 0.5 km/h, subsequent increments of 0.5 km/h per minute were added to reach the maximum speed that was comfortably tolerated by the patient. This latter was used for the entire training period.
Every 40-minute treatment session consisted in isotonic and isometric exercises for the major muscles of the limbs and trunk including cardiovascular warm-up exercises (5 minutes), muscle stretching exercises (10 minutes), muscle stretching exercises for functional purposes (10 minutes), balance training exercises (10 minutes), relaxation exercises (5 minutes)