B R Bloem

..In addition, impaired motor learning may partially explain the higher error rate in PD. Future studies must determine if impaired MTT performance can predict actual falls in daily life...

..Recurrent fallers were best predicted by disease severity and presence of prior falls. Strategies to prevent falls in PD should particularly focus at intrinsic (patient-related) factors, such as minimising the use of benzodiazepines...

..Motor learning influenced performance among subjects who received the MTT in order of increasing difficulty. Further studies must determine whether the MTT can be used to evaluate balance disorders...

..In contrast, protective arm movements did appear to be levodopa-responsive. Future studies should focus on identifying subgroups of optimal responders, particularly patients with levodopa-induced dyskinesias...

..We studied balance reactions in Parkinson's disease using posturography, specifically focusing on the responses to the first, fully unpractised balance disturbance, and on the subsequent habituation rates...

..This observation, together with the retained ability of patients to use compensatory arm movements, provides targets that may be amenable to improvement with therapeutic intervention...

..Early masseter activity warrants further studies to evaluate a potential startle component in the pathophysiology of balance disorders...

..Considering these body segment displacements, any automatic postural response with an onset within the first 200 ms could well be triggered by receptors located at the knee, hip or trunk. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)..

..The aim of this paper was to develop and evaluate a patient-specific index for physiotherapy in Parkinson's disease (PSI-PD)...

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..Here falls in patients with facioscapulohumeral disease (FSHD) who suffered from lower limb muscle weakness were examined. This study provides insights into the prevalence, relevance and pathophysiology of falls in FSHD...

..We conclude by providing recommendations for current multidisciplinary care in PD, while highlighting the need for future clinical trials to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of a multidisciplinary team approach...

..We conclude that the side of symptom onset affects motor dysfunction in PD, and suggest that the non-dominant right hemisphere may be more susceptible to dopaminergic denervation than the dominant left hemisphere...

..It is unknown whether the variation in clinical expression is also reflected by a different underlying neurochemical profile...

..We examined if stride time variability and deficits in interlimb coordination between the upper and lower limbs would increase during split-belt locomotion in PD, and particularly so in patients with FOG...

..Adjustment for age, disease severity or presence of erythrocytes or blood pigments in CSF did not alter these results. Our results imply that CSF α-synuclein is currently unsuitable as biomarker to differentiate between PD and AP...

..We provide a critical discussion of advantages and disadvantages of each approach, emphasizing crucial issues to be addressed for a better understanding of the neural control of human gait...

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..It is argued that the observed changes might contribute to the high incidence of falls in patients with Parkinson's disease...

..2% and specificity of 66.7% in discriminating PSP and CBS. In conclusion, our results suggest that CSF parameters are of additional value in the diagnostic differentiation of CBS and PD...

..Combining these assessments may lead to a better appreciation of the fascinating but complex interplay between cognition and gait...

..The identified risk factors can serve as a template for the design of prevention strategies, which are discussed in the companion article...

..We did not observe any differences from control values...

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..This comprehensive approach is likely to be feasible for other countries as well, so we currently collaborate in a European collaboration to improve community care for persons with Parkinson's disease...

..The aim of this study was to develop quality indicators for physiotherapy in Parkinson's disease (PD) according to international criteria...

..A new approach is presented to quantify this warm-up phenomenon under clinically relevant gait and balance tasks...

..Finally, we discuss the need for an improved organization of allied health care, and identify topics for future research to further underpin the pros and cons of allied health care and complementary therapies in PD...

..These results open the possibility of using this protocol for exploring neurophysiological correlates of gait control in humans...

..Furthermore, we determined whether relevance as perceived by patients correlated with the subjective presence of sleep disruption scored with a rating scale...

..Specifically, we investigated the effect of artificial vibrotactile biofeedback on trunk sway in PD...

..43; P = 0.11). These results cast doubt on the use of the retropulsion test as a measure of postural instability in Parkinson's disease...

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..Differentiating idiopathic late-onset cerebellar ataxia (ILOCA) from ataxia due to the cerebellar subtype of multiple-system atrophy (MSA-C) can be difficult in the early stages of the disease..

..Move for Change is a three-part series of pan-European patient surveys based on this Charter...

..The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the highest striatal D2 binding is found contralateral to the most affected side in PD, and whether this upregulation can be used as a diagnostic tool...

..We also discuss how functional and structural neuroimaging can be used to better characterize these genotype-phenotype correlations...

..In addition, prevention is important for health policy makers who aim to reduce falls in the general population by reducing or eliminating commonly present risk factors (even if they are only weakly associated with falls)...

..This is less than usually reported. Diurnal drooling typically appeared later in the disease course. The association with oral motor behavior should encourage the development of behavioral treatment approaches...

..Underlying vessel wall disorders of the aorta, such as Erdheim Gsell cystic medionecrosis, should be considered in young patients with spontaneous arterial dissection...

..We conclude that this gravity-driven multidirectional platform provides a useful and versatile tool for dynamic posturography...

..Baseline characteristics of participants in the ParkinsonNet and control clusters were comparable. With 699 participating patients, this is the largest allied health study in PD to date...

..This study confirms that falls are a frequent and serious complication of SCA, and that the presence of nonataxia symptoms is an important etiological factor in its occurrence...

..Moreover, there are indications for defects in the systemic energy homeostasis and gastrointestinal function, which may also serve as therapeutic targets. However, the clinical merits of such interventions have yet to be demonstrated...

..The lack of stringent clinical inclusion criteria and limitations of mutation screens by direct sequencing might explain this observation...

..This suggests that SAI induced by electrical D2 stimulation is not focal and somatotopically specific, but a more widespread inhibitory phenomenon...