The Effect of Compensation Strategies on Gait Impairment in Parkinson's Disease

Summary

Gait disturbances are disabling and common in Parkinson's disease (PD). Patients use many different, and typically self-developed, strategies to compensate for their walking abnormalities. There is a wide variety of compensatory strategies, of which external and internal cueing are the most commonly known. External cueing refers to externally produced predictive stimuli such as a metronome, whereas internal cueing refers to a movement reference generated internally, such as counting while walking. The efficacy of external and internal cueing varies dramatically across patients, and some patients can even be identified as 'non-responders' to a particular cue. Consequently, a one-size-fits-all approach simply does not suffice, which increases the need for better understanding of the key mechanisms behind these compensation strategies. Furthermore, it is still unknown how the efficacy of compensation strategies changes longitudinally. The goal of the UNITE-PD project is to address these questions. The investigators aim to investigate whether the efficacy of internal and external cueing changes over time, and whether it is differentially affected in responders and non-responders. In order to work towards a more personalized treatment for patients with PD, the investigators also aim to identify potential patient characteristics that can mediate the actual use of compensation strategies in daily life.

The multicenter UNITE-PD project is divided in a joint package and individual site-specific packages. All partners will investigate the neural working mechanisms of compensation strategies in PD from different angles in the site-specific packages. The joint package focusses on the long-term effect of the compensation strategies and the potential patient characteristics that can influence the efficacy of the compensation strategies. In this project, the investigators will define responders and non-responders to external and/or internal cueing. With the use of extensive clinimetrics, the aim is to identify patient characteristics that might influence the efficacy. With the use of a custom made cueing app (which will be applied during a follow up period of six months), the long-term effect of cueing in the responders can be investigated.

Together, all centers aim to include a total of 384 participants (Netherlands N = 104, Belgium N =90, Israel N = 75, Italy N = 115). Importantly, this sample size is not based on the joint workpackage described here, but on the numbers needed for the individual site-specific work packages.

Conditions

• Parkinson Disease

Interventions

DEVICE

Cueing app

All participants that are included come to the movement lab for the baseline measurement. The baseline measurement consists out of extensive clinimetrics (for example MDS-UPDRS) to identify patient characteristics. With the use of an objective gait assessment, the effectiveness of both internal and external cueing is determined. This will divide the participants in three groups; responders, non-responders and in between. Participants who clearly respond to either internal or external cueing (determined as the responders) are asked to apply the working form of cueing in daily life during the six-month follow-up. During this period the participants will use a mobile application that can provide them with a rhythmic auditory stimulus and records the use of this application. After 6 months, both the responders and non-responders are asked to return to the lab for the follow up measurement in which the baseline measurement is repeated to evaluate the effect of long-term cueing.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• KU Leuven

  collaborator OTHER

• Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo di Pavia

  collaborator OTHER

• Radboud University Medical Center

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2023-12-01

Primary Completion

2026-12-01

Completion

2026-12-01

Countries

• Netherlands

Study Locations