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Postural control in Parkinson's disease
Published in Youlian Hong, Roger Bartlett, Routledge Handbook of Biomechanics and Human Movement Science, 2008
Naturally, biomechanical evaluation of postural control leads to quantitative, more objective data. These tests not only assess balance during quiet standing but also the responses to perturbation stimuli in different conditions. In many studies posturography is used to evaluate postural control. In this test subjects are positioned on a force platform. The ability of controlling balance is commonly calculated by motions of COP. An increased sway of COP is considered to represent deficits in postural control: ‘alterations of the postural control system are reflected in changes of COP characteristics’ (Rocchi et al. 2006, 140). Yet, there are some shortcomings of posturography analyzing postural control in static conditions. In fact, several studies using posturography found no difference between parkinsonian patients and control subjects or even less sway in PD subjects (see Table 36.1).
Postural symmetry evaluation using phase approximations of the follow-up CoP trajectories
Published in Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering, 2021
Tomasz Łukaszewicz, Zenon Kidoń, Dariusz Kania, Krystyna Pethe-Kania
There are a number of diagnostic methods which can be utilized to detect and assess postural anomalies of the human body. The most popular ones are 2D and 3D imaging techniques involving the analysis of static pictures or video recordings, X-ray imaging (including CT scans) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the examined subject (Bullock and Harley 1972; Robinson et al. 1993; Cargill et al. 2007; Steffen et al. 2010; Silveira Furlanetto et al. 2016). Quantification of changes in body segment alignment can also be realized using the so-called optoelectronic measurement systems (Masso and Gorton 2000). Among the simplest and relatively inexpensive diagnostic techniques one can distinguish the methods implementing goniometers, inclinometers and measuring tapes (Hansson et al. 2001; Fortin et al. 2011). In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to the diagnostics conducted with accelerometers and gyroscopes attached to specific parts of the human body (Wong et al. 2007; Godfrey et al. 2008). Worth consideration are also the so-called sensing fabrics which can be integrated with pieces of clothing, enabling observation of movement of certain body parts (De Rossi et al. 2000; Scilingo et al. 2003; Wong et al. 2007). Anomalies in motoric functions of the body can also be detected using the electromagnetic tracking systems (Pearcy and Hindle 1989; Bull et al. 1998; Finley and Lee 2003; Wong et al. 2007). In this case the subject's movements, performed in an artificially generated magnetic field, cause changes in the electromotive force induced in the receivers attached to the selected segments of the body. Another diagnostic approach, which can provide valuable insight into the motoric functions of the human body, is electromyography, i.e., the diagnostics of electrical activity of muscles. This method, by means of properly placed electrodes, allows to record the moments of activation of muscles and measure the intensity of their contractions (Straker and Mekhora 2000; Miljković et al. 2011). The next technique which can be applied for non-invasive assessment of posture control mechanism, being at the core of the study presented further in this paper, is posturography (Nashner and Peters 1990; Biswas 1996; Opara and Preibisch 2001; Visser et al. 2008; Duarte and Freitas 2010; Pethe-Kania 2012; Lu et al. 2013; Łukaszewicz et al. 2015; Błaszczyk 2016). The term “posturography” refers to a set of diagnostic methods enabling evaluation of posture-control and balance-keeping mechanisms of the human body. This kind diagnostics boils down to the analysis of the CoP (Center of Pressure) trajectories, referred to as posturographic trajectories, of a person standing on a specialized measurement platform. The CoP represents the point in which the resultant vertical reaction force of the examined subject’s support surface is applied (Duarte and Freitas 2010; Łukaszewicz 2018).