Quantitative measurement of surface topography in postural assessment of early and middle stage Parkinson 's disease

Abstract

Objective: To explore the significance of surface topography in evaluating posture among individuals in the early to mid-stages of Parkinson’s disease (PD), a study was conducted. The research involved 49 PD patients under the age of 75 with intact cognitive function, alongside 43 age- and gender-matched healthy participants serving as controls. Demographic information was gathered for both groups. PD patients underwent spinal X-rays in a weight-bearing stance, while surface topography measurements were taken for all participants using a DIERS-4D Formetric spine analyzer. Pearson correlation analysis was used to correlate quantitative postural assessment data from surface topography measurements with postural data from fixed-point measurements of spinal plain radiographs. Independent sample T-test was used to compare differences in surface topography parameters between Parkinson 's disease patients and normal controls.

Results: A total of 92 subjects were included in the study, 49 in the PD patient group and 43 in the healthy control group. There were no significant differences in demographic information of gender, height, and weight between the two groups (all p > 0.05).Quantitative postural assessment data of the PD patient group were correlated with postural data measured at fixed points on plain spinal radiographs, and there was a correlation between the measured values in spinal length measurement, spinal frontal plane deviation distance, spinal frontal plane deviation angle, and pelvic tilt angle (p ≤ 0.05).In the quantitative postural assessment data obtained from surface topography measurements, there was a significant difference between the PD patient group and the healthy control group, which was reflected in the frontal plane deviation angle, distance, and the horizontal distance between the apex of cervical lordosis and the fixed point of thoracic kyphosis, and the measured values of the PD patients were significantly greater than those of the normal control group; in the horizontal distance between the apex of thoracic kyphosis and the apex of lumbar lordosis, the measured values of the PD patients were significantly smaller than those of the normal control group (p ≤ 0.01).

Conclusion: Surface topography measurement and X-ray measurement have the same guiding significance for posture evaluation. PD patients have some postural abnormalities in the early and middle stages and can be quantitatively assessed using surface topography measurements.