Abstract

Purpose: to explore whether the diadochokinetic index of syllable production variability (DDKcvp%) is useful for the detection of articulatory inaccuracies in different stages of Parkinson's disease (PD). Methods: a diadochokinetic speech task of the consonant-vowel type [pa-pa-pa] was applied to 18 people with PD (classified in stages of progression from 1 to 5 according to the Hoehn & Yahr scale) to determine their diadochokinetic performance. Records of the study group were compared to a reference value obtained from a control group made up of 40 subjects. Results: 77.78% of the study group showed articulatory inaccuracies. The DDKcvp% index allowed to detect articulatory difficulties from stage 1 of PD, and its variation showed that articulatory deficits were permanent from stage 2 onwards. A significant and direct correlation was obtained between the increase in the DDKcvp% index and the increase in the stage of evolution of the participants. Conclusion: DDKcvp% index evaluated by means of a simple and fast consonant-vowel diadochokinetic task [pa-pa-pa], could be useful to determine articulatory inaccuracies in different stages of PD, although it is suggested that investigation of this index in larger sample sizes be conducted.