The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of 12 weeks exercise program on lower extremity muscle activities during freezing of gait in patients with Parkinson's disease. Electromyography (EMG) analysis was carried out on 30 patients wit...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of 12 weeks exercise program on lower extremity muscle activities during freezing of gait in patients with Parkinson's disease. Electromyography (EMG) analysis was carried out on 30 patients with Parkinson's disease in the off phase of the medication cycle. We recorded EMG signals of the tibialis anterior (TA) medial gastrocnemius (MG), lateral gastrocnemius (LG), soleus (SOL), rectus femoris (RF), vastus lateralis (VL), semitendinosus (ST) and biceps femoris (BF) using Noraxon 16 channels EMG system during freezing of gait. Rectified EMG signals were normalized to reference voluntary contractions (RVC) over a gait cycle at the preferred speed, allowing for an assessment of how the activity was distributed over the gait cycle. Parkinson's patients showed significantly higher lower extremity muscle activities than those of control group during freezing of gait. After 12 weeks exercise program, the post exercise group showed significantly decreased lower extremity muscle activities than those of pre exercise group during freezing of gait.