@article{Christian Laßmann2022,
author = "Christian La{\ss}mann and Winfried Ilg and Marc Schneider and Maximilian V{\"o}lker and Daniel Haeufle and Rebecca Sch{\"u}le and Martin A. Giese and Matthis Synofzik and Ludger Sch{\"o}ls and Tim W. Rattay",
abstract = "Background: In hereditary spastic paraplegia type 4 (SPG4), subclinical gait changes might 
occur years before patients realize gait disturbances. The prodromal phase of neurodegenerative 
disease  is  of  particular  interest  to  halt  disease  progression  by  future  interventions  before 
impairment has manifested.  
Objectives:  Identification  of  specific  movement  abnormalities  before  manifestation  of  gait 
impairment and quantification of disease progression in the prodromal phase. 
Methods: 70 subjects participated in gait assessment, including 30 prodromal SPAST mutation 
carriers, 17 patients with mild-to-moderate manifest SPG4, and 23 healthy controls. Gait was 
assessed by an infrared-camera-based motion capture system to analyze features like range of 
motion and continuous angle trajectories. Those features were correlated with disease severity 
as assessed by the Spastic Paraplegia Rating Scale (SPRS) and neurofilament light chain (NfL) 
as a fluid biomarker indicating neurodegeneration. 
Results: Compared to healthy controls, we found an altered gait pattern in prodromal mutation 
carriers during the swing phase in segmental angles of the lower leg (p",
journal = " Movement Disorders 2022",
keywords = "hereditary spastic paraplegia, prodromal, SPG4, motor biomarker, gait analysis",
title = "{S}pecific gait changes in prodromal hereditary spastic paraplegia type 4 - pre{SPG}4 study",
url = "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36054444/",
year = "2022",
files = "2022.04.20.22274071v1.full.pdf",
}