How to identify tremor dominant and postural instability/gait difficulty groups with the movement disorder society unified Parkinson's disease rating scale: Comparison with the unified Parkinson's disease rating scale

Formulas were developed to define tremor dominant (TD) and postural instability/gait difficulty (PIGD) phenotypes of Parkinson's Disease (PD) using the Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS). TD and PIGD designations, based on the original Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), provided useful designations for classifying different phenotypes of PD. With the advent of the MDS-UPDRS, a valid set of calculations for these phenotypes is needed.

UPDRS and MDS-UPDRS scores were collected on 877 PD patients. TD/PIGD scores were calculated using the UPDRS formula for all patients. Comparable TD and PIGD items from the MDS-UPDRS were used to calculate new ratios. Data were analyzed using receiver operating characteristic models.