Luciano Bissolotti, Pedro Berjano, Paola Zuccher, Andrea Zenorini, Riccardo Buraschi, Jorge Hugo Villafañe, Stefano Negrini


November 2017, Volume 26, Issue 4, pp 471 - 478 Original Article Read Full Article 10.1007/s00586-017-5052-4

First Online: 01 April 2017

Purpose

The aim of this study was to describe the disease-related sagittal balance changes in relation to the sacro-pelvic morphology of Parkinson’s Disease patients with different duration of disease.

Methods

One hundred and seventy-five consecutive Parkinson’s Disease (PD) patients (102 males, 73 females; age: 55–83 years) participated in the cross-sectional study. The clinical assessment included: Hoehn Yahr (H&Y) score; Tinetti score; plumb line (PL) distance from the spinous process of C7, L3 and S1 and kyphosis apex. Lumbar lordosis (LL), thoracic kyphosis (TK), spinosacral (SSA) and spinopelvic (SPA) angles, spinal tilt, pelvic incidence (PI), sacral slope (SS) and pelvic tilt (PT) were radiographically assessed.

Results

Spinosacral and spinopelvic were correlated with the duration of disease and Tinetti score, but not with age. We found a positive correlation between LL and both SSA and SPA. TK was significantly correlated with LL but not with pelvic parameters, while PI with SS and LL.

Conclusions

Female gender, high PI and high LL together with a low PL-C7 distance can be considered as protective factors for spinal imbalance and fall risk; negative factors are represented by male gender, longer disease duration, higher H&Y Class, and low PL-L3 distance. Looking at the pelvis is revealing new important insights in spinal disease management, both surgical and rehabilitative.


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