Elżbieta Mirek, Magdalena Filip and MichaŠMichalski
Parkinson’s disease, PD is one of the most frequent, progressive neurodegenerative diseases of the central nervous system. The most important four core symptoms of PD include: rigidity, resting tremor, bradykinesia, and postural instability. In addition to pharmacological treatment of PD, also available are advanced methods such as infusion therapies and deep brain stimulation (DBS). The aim of the undertaken study for 69-year-old female patient diagnosed with PD is the preliminary assessment of the use of a balance platform as an objective tool for monitoring the progression of imbalances in the course of PD. Due to the increase of PD symptoms (resting and kinetic limb tremors, drug-induced dyskinesias, paranoid delusions with hallucinations) and poor tolerance of the drugs, she was approved for double-sided DBS implantation. An increase in postural sway in both the sagittal and frontal planes was observed in patients after direct double-sided DBS implantation and pharmacological treatment. During the sixmonth observation period after combined DBS and physiotherapy, improvement occurred in the analyzed parameters. Computer testing with the usage of the balance platform is a repeatable method that can be successfully applied in the assessment of movement disorders and the analysis of the results of pharmacological treatment, DBS or the physiotherapy of patients with PD.