Table II.

Differential diagnosis of parkinsonism and frontal gait disorder with a visual inspection of posture and gait.

	Parkinson’s disease	Atypical parkinsonism	Frontal gait disorder
Stance and posture	Forward stoop, rest tremor	Extended neck and back Dystonic (axial) in some	Upper body spared. Wide based
Ignition failure	Late	Early	Very early
Arm swing	Reduced (asymmetric)	Reduced to normal (symmetric)	Compensatory superfluous movements
Stride length	Short	Shorter	Very short
Stance phase	Variable	Longest	Long
Gait speed	Progressively rapid (festination)	Slower than Parkinson’s disease
Cadence	Higher	Relatively less	None
Falls	Late	Early	Early
Freezing of gait	Late	Common	Very common
Apraxia of gait	Rare	Variable frequency	Common
Primary anatomical substrate	Nigrostriatal pathmway	Basal ganglia, thalamus, midbrain	The supplementary motor area, premotor area, medial frontal gyrus, and frontal subcortical connections