Which Aspects of Postural Control Differentiate between Patients with Parkinson’s Disease with and without Freezing of Gait?

Table 1

Clinical variables of nonfreezers, freezers, and controls.

	Nonfreezers (𝑛=10)	Freezers (𝑛=9)	Controls (𝑛=10)	𝑃 value
Gender (m/f)	10/0	7/2	3/7	0.003*
Age (y)	68 (58–75)	65 (62–73)	66 (63–74)	0.90
Height (cm)	174 (169–178)	173 (166–176)	174 (168–179)	0.90
H&Y				0.49
H&Y 2	4	1	NA
H&Y 2.5	2	5	NA
H&Y 3	4	2	NA
H&Y 4	0	1	NA
DD (y)	6 (5–8)	12 (10–14)	NA	0.09
FOGQ tot (0–28)	2.5 (2–4)	13 (6–14)	NA	0.006**
MMSE (24–30)	29 (28–30)	29 (28–30)	NA	0.83
Fall frequency	1/10	4/9	NA	0.008**
UPDRS (III) (0–108)	25.5 (19–27)	26 (23–28)	NA	0.71
Knee proprioception^#	2.4 (1.8–3.6)	2.2 (2-3)	1.6 (1-2)	0.02*

Median and 25th percentile and 75th percentile (Q25 and Q75) are presented between brackets.
#Larger difference in degrees indicates greater difference between right and left leg and thus greater proprioceptive deficit.
Abbreviations: H&Y: Hoehn and Yahr stadium; DD: disease duration; FOGQ tot: total score of the freezing of gait questionnaire; MMSE: mini mental state examination; UPDRS: unified Parkinson’s disease rating scale; NA: not applicable; *significant difference (K-W: 𝑃 < 0.05) between 3 groups (group effect); **significant difference (M-WU: 𝑃 < 0.05) between freezers and nonfreezers (post hoc effects).