Substantial variability and severity of dysarthric patterns across Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients may reflect distinct phenotypic differences. We aimed to compare patterns of speech disorder in early-onset PD (EOPD) and late-onset PD (LOPD) in drug-naive patients at early stages of disease. Speech samples were acquired from a total of 96 participants, including two subgroups of 24 de-novo PD patients and two subgroups of 24 age- and sex-matched young and old healthy controls. The EOPD group included patients with age at onset below 51 (mean 42.6, standard deviation 6.1) years and LOPD group patients with age at onset above 69 (mean 73.9, standard deviation 3.0) years. Quantitative acoustic vocal assessment of 10 unique speech dimensions related to respiration, phonation, articulation, prosody, and speech timing was performed. Despite similar perceptual dysarthria severity in both PD subgroups, EOPD showed weaker inspirations (p = 0.03), while LOPD was characterized by decreased voice quality (p = 0.02) and imprecise consonant articulation (p = 0.03). In addition, age-independent occurrence of monopitch (p < 0.001), monoloudness (p = 0.008), and articulatory decay (p = 0.04) was observed in both PD subgroups. The worsening of consonant articulation was correlated with the severity of axial gait symptoms (r = 0.38, p = 0.008). Speech abnormalities in EOPD and LOPD share common features but also show phenotype-specific characteristics, likely reflecting the influence of aging on the process of neurodegeneration. The distinct pattern of imprecise consonant articulation can be interpreted as an axial motor symptom of PD.

帕金森病 (PD) 患者的构音障碍模式的显着变异性和严重程度可能反映了不同的表型差异。我们旨在比较疾病早期未用药患者的早发性 PD (EOPD) 和迟发性 PD (LOPD) 的言语障碍模式。从总共 96 名参与者那里获得了语音样本，包括 24 名新发 PD 患者的两个亚组和 24 名年龄和性别匹配的年轻和老年健康对照的两个亚组。EOPD 组包括发病年龄低于 51 岁（平均 42.6，标准差 6.1）岁的患者和发病年龄高于 69 岁（平均 73.9，标准差 3.0）岁的 LOPD 组患者。对与呼吸、发声、发音、韵律和语音时间相关的 10 个独特语音维度进行了定量声学语音评估。p  = 0.03），而 LOPD 的特点是语音质量下降（p  = 0.02）和不精确的辅音发音（p  = 0.03）。此外， 在两个 PD 亚组中均观察到与年龄无关的单音（ p  < 0.001）、单音（p  = 0.008）和发音衰减（p = 0.04）。辅音发音的恶化与轴向步态症状的严重程度相关（r  = 0.38，p = 0.008)。EOPD 和 LOPD 的言语异常具有共同特征，但也表现出表型特异性特征，可能反映了衰老对神经退行性变过程的影响。不精确辅音发音的独特模式可以解释为 PD 的轴向运动症状。