A Brief Clinical Tool to Easily Identify the Subtypes of Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is classified into two subtypes based on the dominance of either of its primary motor symptoms: tremor-dominant (TD) or postural instability and gait difficulty (PIGD). The knowledge of these subtypes will allow the clinician to formulate an ideal exercise program for the client and predict the progression of the disease. It is fairly difficult for a novice clinician to reliably detect these subtypes. A cross-sectional study by Prime et al. investigated the utility of various clinical outcome measures for the purpose of effectively identifying them. The authors used the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) or Movement Disorders Society revision (MDS-UPDRS) for the purpose of classifying the subjects as TD or PIGD. They compared the results of these exhaustive tests with brief balance tests such as 360° turn test, one-leg stance, a reactive postural control test, and tandem walk test. These tests were derived from four items of the Fullerto