@article{ref1,
title="Clinical features and related factors of freezing of gait in patients with Parkinson's disease",
journal="Brain and behavior",
year="2021",
author="Zhang, Fengting and Shi, Jin and Duan, Yangyang and Cheng, Jiang and Li, Hui and Xuan, Tingting and Lv, Yue and Wang, Peng and Li, Haining",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Freezing of gait (FOG) is a disabling paroxysmal gait disorder that prevents starting or resuming walking, which seriously negatively affects patients' quality of life (QOL). The diagnosis and treatment of FOG remain a huge medical challenge. The purpose of this study was to explore the clinical characteristics and related factors of FOG in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). <br><br>METHODS: The motor and nonmotor symptoms of a total number of 77 PD patients were evaluated. Patients with or without FOG were defined as a score ≥1 in the new freezing of gait questionnaire (NFOG-Q). A comparative study between patients with and without FOG was conducted. <br><br>RESULTS: In this investigation, the prevalence of FOG was 48%. The patients with FOG had longer disease duration, higher Hoehn-Yahr stage (H-Y stage), higher dose of dopaminergic agents, and higher nonmotor and motor symptom scores. A significant positive correlation was found between the NFOG-Q score and the H-Y stage, PIGD subscore, PDQ-39, and the attention/memory in the nonmotor symptoms assessment scale (NMSS) subitem (r > 0.5, p < .05). The binary logistic regression analysis showed that the higher H-Y stage, higher rigidity subscore and Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale II (UPDRS II) score, and UPDRS III score were significantly correlated with the occurrence of FOG (p < .05). In the analysis of the frequency of FOG, the prevalence of FOG in H-Y stage was higher in the middle and late stages, and the prevalence of FOG increased with the increase in PDQ-39 scores. <br><br>CONCLUSION: The severity of FOG was significantly positively correlated with the H-Y stage, PIGD subscore, PDQ-39 score, and attention/memory score. Based on our findings, we conclude that the clinical characteristics of rigidity can be used as a potential predictor of FOG.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="2162-3279",
doi="10.1002/brb3.2359",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.2359"
}