Background and Purpose. Patients with early-stage Parkinson’s disease (PD) have gait impairments, and gait parameters may act as diagnostic biomarkers. We aimed to (1) comprehensively quantify gait impairments in early-stage PD and (2) evaluate the diagnostic value of gait parameters for early-stage PD. Methods. 32 patients with early-stage PD and 30 healthy control subjects (HC) were enrolled. All participants completed the instrumented stand and walk test, and gait data was collected using wearable sensors. Results. We observed increased variability of stride length (SL) (), stance phase time (StPT) (), and swing phase time (SwPT) () in PD. There were decreased heel strike (HS) (), range of motion of knee (), and hip joints () in PD. In symmetry analysis, no difference was found in any of the assessed gait parameters between HC and PD. Only total steps (, ), SL (, ), SL variability (, ), StPT variability (, ), and SwPT variability (, ) had potential diagnostic value. When these five gait parameters were combined, the predictive power was found to increase, with the highest AUC of 0.802 (). Conclusions. Patients with early-stage PD presented increased variability but still symmetrical gait pattern. Some specific gait parameters can be applied to diagnose early-stage PD which may increase diagnosis accuracy. Our findings are helpful to improve patient’s quality of life.

中文翻译：

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早期帕金森病患者轻度步态障碍及其潜在诊断价值

背景和目的。早期帕金森病 (PD) 患者有步态障碍，步态参数可作为诊断生物标志物。我们旨在 (1) 全面量化早期 PD 的步态障碍和 (2) 评估步态参数对早期 PD 的诊断价值。方法。招募了 32 名早期 PD 患者和 30 名健康对照受试者（HC）。所有参与者都完成了仪器站立和步行测试，并使用可穿戴传感器收集步态数据。结果。我们观察到步幅（SL）的变异性增加（),站立相时间 (StPT) ()和摆动阶段时间 (SwPT) ()在 PD 中。足跟触地（HS）减少（),膝关节活动范围 ()和髋关节 ()在 PD 中。在对称性分析中，HC 和 PD 之间的任何评估步态参数均未发现差异。只有总步数（, ), SL (, ), SL 可变性 (, ), StPT 变异性 (, )和 SwPT 可变性 (, )具有潜在的诊断价值。当这五个步态参数组合时，发现预测能力增加，最高 AUC 为 0.802（）。 结论。早期 PD 患者表现出增加的变异性，但仍然是对称的步态模式。一些特定的步态参数可用于诊断早期 PD，这可能会提高诊断准确性。我们的研究结果有助于提高患者的生活质量。