Pisa Syndrome in Chinese Patients With Parkinson's Disease

Objective: To investigate the prevalence and the clinical factors related to Pisa syndrome (PS) in Chinese Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. Methods: A total of 2,167 PD patients were continuously included in this observational study. Patients with PS were identified as presented with a lateral trunk flexion of at least 10° that can be completely alleviated by passive mobilization or supine positioning. The data of the motor and non-motor symptoms including depression, anxiety and cognitive dysfunction was collected and analyzed. Results: We found seventy-seven (3.6%) PD patients presenting with PS. The following variables including age, disease duration, levodopa equivalent daily doses (LEDD), the proportion of males, the proportion of participants using levodopa, dopaminergic agonist, amantadine and entacapone, the proportion of motor fluctuations, scores of Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD), Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA), Unified PD Rating Scale (UPDRS) part III, and Hoehn and Yahr (H&Y) stage were significantly higher in patients with PS compared with patients without PS (P < 0.05). Scores of the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) were not different between the two groups. The binary logistic regression model indicated that the presence of PS was associated with older age (OR = 1.027, P = 0.030), higher LEDD (OR = 1.002, P < 0.001) and a higher UPDRS III score (OR = 1.060, P < 0.001), but had no relationship with HAMD and HAMA scores. Conclusion: PS is relatively rare (3.6%) in Chinese PD patients. It is likely associated with older age, higher LEDD and more severe motor disabilities. However, non-motor symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and cognitive dysfunction have no association with PS in PD. These findings provided important complementary information for identifying the underlying mechanisms of PS.