At present the parkinsonian rigidity assessment depends on subjective judgment of neurologists according to their experience. This study presents a parkinsonian rigidity quantification system based on the electromechanical driving device and mechanical impedance measurement method. The quantification system applies the electromechanical driving device to perform the rigidity clinical assessment tasks (flexion-extension movements) in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, which captures their motion and biomechanical information synchronously. Qualified rigidity features were obtained through statistical analysis method such as least-squares parameter estimation. By comparing the judgments from both the parkinsonian rigidity quantification system and neurologists, correlation analysis was performed to find the optimal quantitative feature. Clinical experiments showed that the mechanical impedance has the best correlation (Pearson correlation coefficient r = 0.872, P < 0.001) with the clinical unified Parkinson’s disease rating scale (UPDRS) rigidity score. Results confirmed that this measurement system is capable of quantifying parkinsonian rigidity with advantages of simple operation and effective assessment. In addition, the mechanical impedance can be adopted to help doctors to diagnose and monitor parkinsonian rigidity objectively and accurately.
For speech detection in Parkinson’s patients, we proposed a method based on time-frequency domain gradient statistics to analyze speech disorders of Parkinson’s patients. In this method, speech signal was first converted to time-frequency domain (time-frequency representation). In the process, the speech signal was divided into frames. Through calculation, each frame was Fourier transformed to obtain the energy spectrum, which was mapped to the image space for visualization. Secondly, deviations values of each energy data on time axis and frequency axis was counted. According to deviations values, the gradient statistical features were used to show the abrupt changes of energy value in different time-domains and frequency-domains. Finally, KNN classifier was applied to classify the extracted gradient statistical features. In this paper, experiments on different speech datasets of Parkinson’s patients showed that the gradient statistical features extracted in this paper had stronger clustering in classification. Compared with the classification results based on traditional features and deep learning features, the gradient statistical features extracted in this paper were better in classification accuracy, specificity and sensitivity. The experimental results show that the gradient statistical features proposed in this paper are feasible in speech classification diagnosis of Parkinson’s patients.
Objective To understand the frailty status and main influencing factors of elderly Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients. Methods The elderly PD patients who attended the Department of Neurology of Changshu Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine between November 2023 and March 2024 were selected. The patients’ frailty conditions were investigated using general information questionnaire, Chinese version of Tilburg Frailty Indicator, Hoehn-Yahr Rating Scale, Mini-Nutritional Assessment Short Form, Movement Disorder Society-Unified PD Rating Scale Part Ⅲ, PD Sleep Scale-2, and Mini-Mental State Examination. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to further determine the influencing factors of the frailty status in elderly PD patients. Results A total of 170 PD patients were included. Among them, 117 cases (68.82%) had frailty, while 53 cases (31.18%) had not frailty. The average score for frailty was (6.48±3.34) points, the average score for nutritional status was (11.89±1.65) points, the average score for motor function was (27.40±13.73) points, the average score for sleep quality was (16.05±7.76) points, and the average score for cognitive status is (26.25±4.51) points. The Pearson correlation analysis results showed that PD patient frailty was positively correlated with motor function and sleep quality (P<0.01), and negatively correlated with nutritional status and cognitive status (P<0.01). The results of multiple linear regression analysis showed that age, education, place of residence, course of disease, Hoehn-Yahr Rating, nutritional status, motor function, cognitive status and sleep quality were the influencing factors of frailty in PD patients (P<0.05). Conclusions Elderly PD patients are prone to frailty. Healthcare professionals should pay attention to early screening for frailty in this population and provide timely and effective interventions to prevent or delay the onset of frailty in patients.
Parkinson’s disease is a common neurodegenerative disorder with continuously rising incidence rates. Existing pharmacological treatments have complications and cannot halt disease progression. Transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation (tFUS), as a novel neuromodulation technology, demonstrates unique advantages in Parkinson’s disease treatment. tFUS exerts multiple effects through mechanical mechanisms at multiple levels, including protecting dopaminergic neurons, regulating neurotransmitter systems, and improving neural circuit function. Preclinical studies have confirmed its potential in improving both motor and non-motor symptoms, and early clinical studies have shown good safety profiles. However, the clinical translation of tFUS still faces challenges such as parameter optimization and individualized treatment protocols, requiring validation of long-term efficacy through large-scale clinical trials.
People with Parkinson’s disease (PD) exhibit multi-system damaged. Medication mainly targets impairments related to dopaminergic lesions. Moreover, in later stages of the disease, medication becomes less effective. Rehabilitation therapy is believed that it can improve multiple functional disorders, including myotonia, bradykinesia, and postural gait abnormalities. It not only reduces the severity of non-motor symptoms and improves the quality of life in PD patients, but also delays the development of PD and improves the activity of daily life of patients. This article summarizes the progress of rehabilitation assessment and the therapy of PD.
Aiming at the limitations of clinical diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease (PD) with rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD), in order to improve the accuracy of diagnosis, an intelligent-aided diagnosis method based on few-channel electroencephalogram (EEG) and time-frequency deep network is proposed for PD with RBD. Firstly, in order to improve the speed of the operation and robustness of the algorithm, the 6-channel scalp EEG of each subject were segmented with the same time-window. Secondly, the model of time-frequency deep network was constructed and trained with time-window EEG data to obtain the segmentation-based classification result. Finally, the output of time-frequency deep network was postprocessed to obtain the subject-based diagnosis result. Polysomnography (PSG) of 60 patients, including 30 idiopathic PD and 30 PD with RBD, were collected by Nanjing Brain Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University and the doctor’s detection results of PSG were taken as the gold standard in our study. The accuracy of the segmentation-based classification was 0.902 4 in the validation set. The accuracy of the subject-based classification was 0.933 3 in the test set. Compared with the RBD screening questionnaire (RBDSQ), the novel approach has clinical application value.
The application of dopamine agonists in Parkinson’s disease has been a hot topic in recent years. Can dopamine receptor agonists serve as the initial drugs for Parkinson’s disease? Does it improve the natural history of patients? Has it neuroprotective role? When and how to use dopamine receptor agonists? This article provides evidence on the pros and cons of dopamine receptor agonists in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease for helping clinical decision making.
The aim of this study is to investigate the protective effect of idebenone (IDE) combined with borneol (BO) against Parkinson’s disease (PD). In this study, wild-type AB zebrafish and transgenic Tg (vmat2: GFP) zebrafish with green fluorescence labeled dopamine neurons were used to establish the PD model with 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine hydrochloride (MPTP). Following drug treatment, the behavioral performance and dopamine neuron morphology of zebrafish were evaluated, and regulation of dopamine signaling pathway-related genes was determined using RT-qPCR. The results showed that IDE combined with BO improved the behavioral disorders of zebrafish such as bradykinesia and shortening movement distance, also effectively reversed the damage of MPTP-induced dopaminergic neurons. At the same time, the expression of dopamine synthesis and transportation-related genes was up-regulated, and the normal function of the signal transduction pathway was restored. The combination showed a better therapeutic effect compared to the IDE monotherapy group. This study reveals the protective mechanism of IDE combined with BO on the central nervous system for the first time, which provides an important experimental basis and theoretical reference for clinical combination strategy in PD treatment.
ObjectiveTo summarize and evaluate the quality of methodology, report and evidence of the systematic reviews and meta-analyses (SRs/MAs) of acupuncture and moxibustion interventions for Parkinson's disease. MethodsEight databases including CNKI, WanFang Data, VIP, CBM, PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane Library and Web of Science were searched from inception to May 1, 2023. The quality of methodology, report and evidence involved in these studies were evaluated by AMSTAR 2, PRISMA and GRADE tool. ResultsA total of 28 SRs/MAs were included, and the findings of included studies showed that acupuncture and moxibustion had a clinical advantage for Parkinson's disease. The methodological quality of all studies was extremely low. Thirteen reports were relatively complete, 14 reports had certain flaws, and 1 report had relatively serious flaws. And of the 126 reports for seven outcomes, 1 was graded as high, 12 as moderate, 57 as low, and 56 as critically low. ConclusionThe current evidence shows that acupuncture and moxibustion have a certain clinical effect for Parkinson's disease, but the methodological quality and evidence quality of related SRs/MAs are low, and the standardization still needs to be improved. The efficacy of acupuncture and moxibustion in Parkinson's disease still needs to be verified by high-quality clinical studies in the future.
Objective To systematically review the efficacy and safety of CoenzymeQ10 for Parkinson’s disease. Methods Databases including PubMed, The Cochrane Library (Issue 1, 2015), EMbase, CBM, CNKI, WanFang Data and VIP were searched from inception to August 2015, to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about CoenzymeQ10 for Parkinson’s disease. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Then meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software. Results A total of 5 RCTs involving 981 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that, a) As for recently effectiveness, CoenzymeQ10 2 400 mg group was superior to the placebo group in total UPDRS score change (MD=1.09, 95%CI 0.94 to 1.24, P < 0.000 01), UPDRS-I score change (MD=0.19, 95%CI 0.17 to 0.21, P < 0.000 01), UPDRS-II score change (MD=0.27, 95%CI 0.21 to 0.32, P < 0.000 01), UPDRS-III score change (MD=0.65, 95%CI 0.54 to 0.76, P < 0.000 01), Hoehn & Yahr score change (MD=0.05, 95%CI 0.04 to 0.06, P < 0.000 01), and Schwab England score change (MD= –0.87, 95%CI –1.02 to –0.72, P < 0.000 01). b) As for long-term effectiveness, there were no differences between two groups, except that the UPDRS-II score change of CoenzymeQ10 1 200 mg group was superior to the placebo group. c) As for adverse reactions, there were no statistical differences between two groups except that the incidence of cholesterol of the CoenzymeQ10 600 mg group and incidence of diarrhea of the CoenzymeQ10 2 400 mg group were lower than that of the placebo group. Conclusion Current evidence shows that, the dosage of 2 400 mg/d CoenzymeQ10 is effective and safe for early Parkinson’s disease. Due to the limited quality and quantity of included studies, more higher quality studies are needed to verify the above conclusion.