Stability and Balance in Locomotion Through Exercise (StaBLE)

University of Erlangen-Nürnberg

Status and phase: Completed; Phase 1

Conditions: Parkinson's Disease

Treatments: Behavioral: treadmill walking; Device: Treadmill

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01856244

DSN-0613

Details and patient eligibility

About

Persons with Morbus Parkinson commonly develop gait and balance disorders leading to dependence, loss of mobility and a high risk of falling.

This study investigates the effectiveness of a sensorimotor treadmill intervention to improve walking and balance abilities in persons with early stages of Parkinson's disease. The sensorimotor treadmill training is conducted on a special treadmill device which is challenging the participants by small oscillations. This intervention, which is supposed to simulate walking on natural, uneven surfaces, is compared to a conventional treadmill training.

Hypothesis: Sensorimotor treadmill training leads to larger improvements in walking and balance abilities as compared to conventional treadmill exercise.

Enrollment: 48 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Parkinson's disease stage 1-3 Hoehn and Yahr
• United Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) 'gait' or 'postural stability' subscore of 1 or more
• Ability to stand unaided and walk without an assistive device
• Stable medication during the study period

Exclusion criteria

• On-off and wearing-off phenomena
• Unstable medical or psychiatric illness
• Clinically relevant cardiovascular or orthopaedic disease
• Severe polyneuropathy
• Cognitive impairment

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

---

48 participants in 2 patient groups

sensorimotor treadmill training

Experimental group

Description:

specific treadmill control using oscillating platform

Treatment:

Device: Treadmill

Behavioral: treadmill walking

conventional treadmill training

Active Comparator group

Description:

conventional treadmill control

Treatment:

Device: Treadmill

Behavioral: treadmill walking