Walking along circular trajectories in Parkinson's disease

We hypothesized that gait capacities would be
more stressed in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) when
walking along curved than straight trajectories, owing to the
complex adaptations required for this walking task. Twenty
on-phase patients with PD and 20 healthy subjects walked
eyes-open along straight and curved trajectories for 1 minute
at self-paced cadence and velocity. Step frequency along
straight and curved trajectories was computed from videorecordings
of the lower limbs. Step frequency was not
affected by trajectory shape in either patients with PD or
healthy subjects. Distances run by the patients were shorter
than normal under both conditions. However, in PD, distances
were relatively shorter during curved than straight walking;
therefore, decreased distances in PD were connected
with decreased mean step length (as the ratio between distance
and step number). No correlation was found between
the above mentioned variables and the severity or duration of
the disease or the frequency of falls. Walking along curved trajectories
can highlight impaired gait control in on-phase patients
with PD, and can be suitable for the routine evaluation of possible
walking disorders when straight walking is not significantly
affected.