July 2007
Alberto Albanese
Patients with Parkinson’s disease may benefit from a personalised
exercise programme designed to help avoid falls and maintain mobility. Typical idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (PD) presents with unilateral
tremor, rigidity and limb bradykinesia. The disease is manageable with
symptomatic treatment for several years before gait, postural and other
symptoms develop.
The term lower body parkinsonism was
introduced to refer to parkinsonian syndromes marked chiefly by gait
disturbance, with minimal or no upper limb difficulties.
Lower body parkinsonism is thought to
be a disorder of vascular origin that affects non-dopaminergic brain
areas responsible
for locomotion. The same regions are
involved (at least in part) in the later stages of idiopathic PD. The
principal locomotor
deficit associated with parkinsonian
syndromes is considered to be impaired generation of the postural shifts
that mediate
changes from one steady state posture
or movement to another.
