Development of software tool for quantitative gait assessment in Parkinsonian patients with and without Mild Cognitive Impairment

Abstract

The construct of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is considered as a transition state between normal aging and dementia. Originally it has been conceptualized as the transitional state between normalcy and Alzheimer's disease (AD), more recently, it has been applied to patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) as pre-dementia state. The relationship between cognition and gait disturbances has received increasing attention and is well established. In order to perform a quantitative assessment of gait in PD patients with or without MCI, an operating software tool has been developed. Ittakes advantage of the potentialities of the software Qualisys Track Manager and of the Matlab and allows the quantitative evaluation of the cinematic parameters of the human gait. © 2010 International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering.