New BTS Lab in Milan dedicated to patients with Parkinson's

The new BTS laboratory for the movement analysis dedicated to research and prevention in Parkinson’s patients has been celebrated in these days in Milan, at the CTO (Traumatologic and Orthopedic Center) of the Gaetano Pini Hospital.
The Laboratory was created in collaboration with the University Hospital of Würzburg, Germany, and with the contribution of the Grigioni Foundation for the Parkinson’s disease.
Thanks to the different technologies available, patients will undergo a complete movement analysis, combined with the acquisition of electroencephalographic data. Specifically, information will be collected as for the kinematics of the walk (for example, gait length and speed are analyzed), the dynamics of the gait (such as ground reaction force) and finally electromyographic data, which will allow us to understand how the muscles activate in the execution of a particular motor gesture.
Full Professor of Neurology Ioannis U. Isaias, at UKW-University of Würzburg, and Director of the CTO Laboratory, explains how the studies will focus mainly on the prevention of some symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, such as freezing of gait, ie sudden motor block, during which the individual’s feet seem literally glued to the floor and unable to move normally.
To replicate the conditions that lead to the onset of this symptom, the patient is invited to walk in immersive virtual reality environments, which reproduce the most difficult situations in their daily life, such as crossing a crowded street or making a change of direction, that they are at high risk for the appearance of the freezing phenomenon, with consequent loss of balance and fall.
Thanks to the integrated use of the BTS movement analysis laboratory and the analysis of brain activity in a virtual reality environment, the University of Würzburg has been able to identify one of the causes of the block: the disconnection of two precise areas of the brain.
The constant research and the progress that the medicine is carrying out in the study of this disease will allow us to offer patients more and more precise and personalized therapies with a consequent improvement in the quality of life.
At first the Laboratory will be used for research projects for parkinsonians with specific locomotor problems, but later all patients with Parkinson’s disease will be able to perform a gait analysis in the context of the National Health Service.
We are very proud to be able to collaborate, thanks to our technologies, with important research centers that work internationally to guarantee constant progress in the research and treatment of neurological diseases and neuromotor disorders.