Assessment of an Objective Method of Dyskinesia Measurement in Parkinson's Disease

Abstract

BackgroundThe goal of this study was to validate an objective method of measuring levodopa induced dyskinesia in Parkinson's disease (PD). MethodsTo characterize agreement between the clinician-based measure and a force plate, we assessed dyskinesia in PD subjects participating in a randomized and blinded clinical trial of an adenosine A2A anatagonist. Convergent validity and intra-class correlations were evaluated between the objective force plate measure and clinician assessments. ResultsAll measures correlated across time and detected differences in treatments. ConclusionOur results indicate that objective measure from a force plate is in scale agreement with clinical ratings of dyskinesia severity, indicating it as a reliable method to measure LID objectively but with greater resolution to detect changes in LID.