Alessandro Padovani, Italy
University of Brescia Department of Clinical and Experimental SciencesAuthor Of 2 Presentations
GAIT AND TURNING ALTERATIONS IN IDIOPATHIC REM SLEEP BEHAVIORAL DISORDER AND EARLY PARKINSON’S DISEASE: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY WITH MOBILE HEALTH TECHNOLOGY.
Abstract
Aims
The aim of the study was investigate the differences in performances of gait and turning under supervised conditions in healthy controls (HC), idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorders (RBD) and patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD).
Methods
Each participant underwent a supervised mobile health technology-instrumented assessment including the timed up and go test (TUG), and one minute walking tasks with turns in normal and dual task conditions (cognitive task, motor task).
Results
Sixty-eight PD patients (26 drug naïve and 42 under treatment, mean UPDRS-III 15±9), 18 RBD (mean UPDRS-III 1±1) and 33 age-matched controls entered the study. Compared to controls, PD patients (both naive and under treatment) needed more time to perform the TUG. During straight walking, the showed higher stride time, higher double limb support variability and a higher asymmetry index. Moreover, they turned slower than controls. Compared to controls, RBD subjects showed a higher swing time and turned slower.
Conclusions
This study suggests that RBD patients have a gait pattern that is distinguishable from controls and show features comparable to early PD patients. These results partly support results from a recent study investigating RBD gait in free-living conditions, and build a bridge between the control and PD state. Future studies using mobile health technology are needed to evaluate the predictive capacity of the method, to define RBD subjects that are in prodromal PD phases.
HYPERCONNECTIVITY IN FRONTOTEMPORAL VS. ALZHEIMER DEMENTIA: A LONGITUDINAL MULTICENTER EEG STUDY.
Abstract
Aims
Impairment in network connectivity explored by resting state EEG (rsEEG) recordings, was reported in posterior cortical areas of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. In the present longitudinal multicenter study we aimed to: 1. investigate whether disruption of cortical network connectivity is differently expressed in Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) vs. AD, 2. to longitudinally characterize patterns of connectivity along the course of the disease.
Methods
Network connectivity was detected in rsEEG by Mutual Information (MI) Analysis, a measure of intererelatedness between nodes of a network. MI provided an input for graph theory analysis of the network. rsEEG was recorded in 18 FTD, 18 AD, and 20 healthy controls (HC). FTD and AD patients were recorded at the prodromal stage of dementia, at onset of dementia and three years after dementia onset. HC underwent three EEG recordings at the same interval.
Results
FTD and AD patients showed greater MI than HC at the prodromal stage of dementia (p=4·10-7 for FTD vs. HC; 7·10-3 for AD vs. HC). The main hub of HC (P3) was lost in FTD patients at the onset of dementia and substituted by provincial hubs in frontal leads. FTD network appeared to be rearranged in new small worlds. No changes in global network organization was found in AD.
Conclusions
Cortical neural hyperconnectivity was present only in the prodromal stage of dementia in areas involved in the specific pathological process of FTD (anterior) and AD (posterior regions), thus suggesting that it is an early electrophysiological feature, potentially useful to identify prodromal FTD and AD.