Prevalence of Thai patients with advanced Parkinson's disease and external validation of the 5-2-1 Criteria and the CDEPA Questionnaire: A single-centered, cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Advanced stage of Parkinson's disease (APD) diagnosis is challenging for general neurologists. The 5-2-1 Criteria and the Cuestionario De Enfermedad de Parkinson Avanzada (CDEPA) have been validated for screening for APD. OBJECTIVE: This article reports the period-prevalence of APD defined by a movement disorder expert, the 5-2-1 Criteria, and CDEPA and to improve the screening performance of the 5-2-1 Criteria METHODS: A cross-sectional retrospective study at the Parkinson's disease (PD) clinic of a tertiary hospital in Bangkok, Thailand amongst all PD patients aged ≥ 18 years was performed from January 2016 to January 2020. We compared the characteristics of APD and non-APD patients. We externally validated the 5-2-1 Criteria and CDEPA. We explored improving the 5-2-1 Criteria. RESULTS: Of 480 PD patients with complete data, the period-prevalence of APD by the movement disorder expert, the 5-2-1 Criteria and CDEPA were 37.1 %, 48.5 %, and 27.5 %, respectively. Adding requiring help with an activity of daily living and freezing of gait to the original 5-2-1 Criteria enhanced the sensitivity from 86.5 % (95 %CI 80.6, 91.2) to 94.9 % (95 %CI 90.6, 97.7) and negative predictive value (NPV) from 90.3 % (95 %CI 85.9, 93.7) to 96 % (95 %CI 92.6, 98.2). However, the CDEPA had a sensitivity of 62.9 % (95 %CI 55.4, 70) and NPV of 81.0 (95 %CI 76.5, 85). CONCLUSION: The 5-2-1 Criteria had a good screening tool performance for general neurologists to refer APD patients for optimal treatments. The modified 5-2-1 Criteria had better performance than the original one. External validation is needed.

Gait and axial postural abnormalities correlations in Parkinson's disease: A multicenter quantitative study.

INTRODUCTION: Gait and axial postural abnormalities (PA) are common and disabling symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). The interplay between them has been poorly explored. METHODS: A standardized protocol encompassing videos and photos for posture and gait analysis of PD patients with a clinically defined PA (MDS-UPDRS-III item 3.13 > 0) was used in 6 movement disorder centers. A comprehensive evaluation was performed to clarify the association between gait performance and the presence and severity of PA. RESULTS: 225 PD patients were enrolled: 57 had severe PA, 149 mild PA, and 19 did not meet criteria for PA, according to a recent consensus agreement on PA definition. PD patients with severe PA were significantly older (p:0.001), with longer disease duration (p:0.007), worse MDS-UPDRS-II and -III scores and axial sub-scores (p < 0.0005), higher LEDD (p:0.002) and HY stage (p < 0.0005), and a significantly lower velocity (p < 0.001) and cadence (p:0.021), if compared to mild PA patients. The multiple regression analysis evaluating gait parameters and degrees of trunk/neck flexion showed that higher degrees of lumbar anterior trunk flexion were correlated with lower step length (OR -0.244; p:0.014) and lower velocity (OR -0.005; p:0.028). CONCLUSIONS: Our results highlight the possible impact of severe anterior trunk flection on PD patients' gait, with a specific detrimental effect on gait velocity and step length. Personalized rehabilitation strategies should be elaborated based on the different features of PA, aiming to target a combined treatment of postural and specifically related gait pattern alterations.

Postural abnormalities in Asian and Caucasian Parkinson's disease patients: A multicenter study.

INTRODUCTION: Postural abnormalities (PA) are disabling features of Parkinson's disease (PD). Indirect analyses suggested a higher prevalence of PA among Asian patients compared to Caucasian ones, but no direct comparisons have been performed so far. METHODS: An international, multicenter, cross-sectional study was performed in 6 European and Asian movement disorders centers with the aim to clarify differences and similarities of prevalence and characteristics of PA in Asian vs. Caucasian PD patients. Axial PA, encompassing antecollis (AC), camptocormia (CC), and Pisa syndrome (PS), and appendicular PA (appPA) were systematically searched and analysed in consecutive patients. RESULTS: 88 (27%) of 326 PD patients had PA (29.1% in Asians and 24.3% in Caucasians, p: 0.331). Prevalence of axial PA was 23.6% in Asians and 24.3% in Caucasians (p = 0.886), in spite of a longer disease duration among Caucasians, but a longer PA duration among Asians. No differences in prevalence between AC, CC, and PS were found between the two ethnicities. The prevalence of appPA was higher in Asians (p = 0.036), but the regression analysis did not confirm a significant difference related to ethnicity. Considering the whole population, male gender (OR, 4.036; 95% CI, 1.926-8.456; p < 0.005), a longer disease duration (OR, 2.61; 95% CI, 1.024-6.653; p = 0.044), and a higher axial score (OR, 1.242; 95% CI, 1.122-1.375; p < 0.0005) were the factors associated with axial PA. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of axial PA in PD patients is not influenced by ethnicity. However, Asian PD patients tend to develop PA earlier in the disease course, particularly AC.