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Sudden Stopping in Patients with Cerebellar Ataxia

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Abstract

Stopping during walking, a dynamic motor task frequent in everyday life, is very challenging for ataxic patients, as it reduces their gait stability and increases the incidence of falls. This study was conducted to analyse the biomechanical characteristics of upper and lower body segments during abrupt stopping in ataxic patients in order to identify possible strategies used to counteract the instability in the sagittal and frontal plane. Twelve patients with primary degenerative cerebellar ataxia and 12 age- and sex-matched healthy subjects were studied. Time–distance parameters, dynamic stability of the centre of mass, upper body measures and lower joint kinematic and kinetic parameters were analysed. The results indicate that ataxic patients have a great difficulty in stopping abruptly during walking and adopt a multi-step stopping strategy, occasionally with feet parallel, to compensate for their inability to coordinate the upper body and to generate a well-coordinated lower limb joint flexor–extensor pattern and appropriate braking forces for progressively decelerating the progression of the body in the sagittal plane. A specific rehabilitation treatment designed to improve the ability of ataxic patients to transform unplanned stopping into planned stopping, to coordinate upper body and to execute an effective flexion–extension pattern of the hip and knee joints may be useful in these patients in order to improve their stopping performance and prevent falls.

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Conflicts of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest or financial interests.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, University of Rome Sapienza, Latina, Italy

    Mariano Serrao, Carlo Casali, Roberto Di Fabio & Gianluca Coppola

  2. Rehabilitation Centre, Policlinico Italia, Piazza del Campidano, 6-00162, Rome, Italy

    Mariano Serrao, Carmela Conte & Stefano Monamì

  3. Department of Neuroscience, IRCCS C. Mondino, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

    Carmela Conte & Giorgio Sandrini

  4. Department of Occupational Medicine, INAIL, Monteporzio Catone, Rome, Italy

    Alberto Ranavolo

  5. Fondazione Don Gnocchi, Milan, Italy

    Silvia Mari & Luca Padua

  6. IRCCS Neuromed, Pozzilli, Italy

    Armando Perrotta & Francesco Pierelli

Authors
  1. Mariano Serrao
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  2. Carmela Conte
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  3. Carlo Casali
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  4. Alberto Ranavolo
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  5. Silvia Mari
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  6. Roberto Di Fabio
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  7. Armando Perrotta
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  8. Gianluca Coppola
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  9. Luca Padua
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  10. Stefano Monamì
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  11. Giorgio Sandrini
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  12. Francesco Pierelli
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mariano Serrao.

Additional information

Mariano Serrao and Carmela Conte equally contributed to this work.

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Serrao, M., Conte, C., Casali, C. et al. Sudden Stopping in Patients with Cerebellar Ataxia. Cerebellum 12, 607–616 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-013-0467-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-013-0467-x

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