Stride length analysis and therapeutic effect of robot-assisted treadmill training in Parkinsonian patients with freezing of gait

Objective: Firstly, to detect differences in stride length in Parkinson Disease (PD) patients with and without freezing of gait (FOG). Secondly, to test in an independent pilot study whether repetitive robot assisted treadmill walking increases stride length and therefore diminishes freezing of gait. Background: FOG is a common and disabling symptom in advanced PD. Treatment is often problematic since established therapeutic procedures such as dopaminergic medication, deep brain stimulation and physiotherapy do not reliably reduce FOG in many cases. There is evidence in the literature that decreased stride lengt…