Search

Kinesiophobia is defined as the fear of movement and activity resulting from a feeling of vulnerability to painful injury or re-injury. This study aimed to determine the effect of kinesiophobia on physical activity, balance, and fear of falling in patients with Parkinson's disease. The study, which was designed as a cross-sectional type, was conducted with 86 patients with Parkinson's disease (age 61.25 SD [9.72] years old) by face-to-face interviews with the patients. The Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia, International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form, Berg Balance Scale, Falls Efficacy Scale, Visual Analog Scale – Fear of Falling, Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale – motor score, and the Hoehn and Yahr scale were used to evaluate the patients. Patients with Parkinson's disease who had high levels of kinesiophobia had lower levels of physical activity, worse balance, and higher disease severity and fear of falling. A correlation was found between the Tampa Scale score and physical activity, balance, fear of falling, falls efficacy, and disease motor score (p <.001; r = −0.38, −0.54, 0.67, 0.57, and 0.37, respectively). According to multiple linear regression analysis, kinesiophobia explained the dependent variables to varying degrees ranging from 13% to 44% (p <.001). Patients with Parkinson's disease may have kinesiophobia. Rehabilitation programs to support functional capacity for these patients should be developed considering the presence of kinesiophobia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented concerning a 62-year-old right-handed woman admitted in 2010 with an initial diagnosis of sensorimotor demyelinating polyneuropathy which developed into a corticobasal syndrome (CBS).

Cortical relay time (CRT) is a neurophysiologic method that measures transmission between sensory and motor cortices. In this study, we calculated CRT to evaluate intrahemispheric transmission in idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD). We recorded the following parameters: 1) long latency reflexes (LLRs), 2) motor-evoked potentials (MEPs), and 3) somatosensoryevoked potentials (SEPs) according to previously published reports, and cortical relay time was calculated using the following formula: Latency of LLR II - (onset latency of MEP response + latency of N20 response of SEP). CRT was shorter in patients with apraxia compared with patients without apraxia. The findings may raise the possibility of intrahemispheric aberrant conduction or abnormal synaptic reorganization in the presence of apraxia in PD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]