Prevalence of and factors associated with postural deformities in Chinese patients with multiple system atrophy

The prevalence of postural deformities in patients with multiple system atrophy (MSA) has varied among previous studies. The objective of our study was to investigate the prevalence of and factors associated with postural deformities in Chinese MSA patients.

A total of 732 MSA patients were consecutively enrolled in the current study. Clinical data including age, sex, age of onset, disease duration, onset symptom and treatment were collected. The Unified Multiple System Atrophy Rating Scale (UMSARS) was used to evaluate the severity of the disease.

One hundred and fourteen (15.6%) patients presented with camptocormia. Thirty-one (4.2%) patients manifested with Pisa syndrome. Twenty-four (3.3%) patients presented with antecollis. Patients who exhibited postural deformities were more common among the MSA patients with predominant parkinsonism (MSA-P) (P < 0.05). In addition, MSA patients with postural deformities had a longer disease duration compared to those patients without postural deformities (P < 0.001). After adjusting for disease duration, compared with patients without postural deformities, MSA patients with postural deformities presented with higher score of UMSARS-I (P < 0.001), UMSARS-II (P < 0.001), UMSARS-IV (P < 0.001), and total UMSARS (P < 0.001) scores. The binary logistic regression model indicated that the factors associated with postural deformity in MSA patients were the total UMSARS score (OR = 1.076, P < 0.001) and MSA-P subtype (OR = 3.870, P < 0.001).

Postural deformities were common in Chinese MSA patients. Camptocormia was the most common type of postural deformity, followed by Pisa syndrome and antecollis. The factors associated with postural deformity were the severity of the disease and MSA-P subtype.