TY - JOUR PY - 2021// TI - Clinical features and related factors of freezing of gait in patients with Parkinson's disease JO - Brain and behavior A1 - Zhang, Fengting A1 - Shi, Jin A1 - Duan, Yangyang A1 - Cheng, Jiang A1 - Li, Hui A1 - Xuan, Tingting A1 - Lv, Yue A1 - Wang, Peng A1 - Li, Haining SP - ePub EP - ePub VL - ePub IS - ePub N2 - 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).

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.

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.

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.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 2162-3279 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.2359 ID - ref1 ER -