Evaluation of movement of patients with Parkinson's disease using wearable MoCap system and bilateral cyclograms

Abstract

The article focuses on a method of quantifying movement of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) using wearable motion capture (MoCap) system and bilateral cyclograms. The method uses cyclogram characteristics such as the slope, second moment of area and the area of the cyclogram to compare movements of left and right side of body. For symmetric movement, cyclogram should lie on a symmetry line passing through the origin inclined at an angle 45º. To study the body movement, measurement was performed using accelerometers (Xsens Technologies B.V.). Four accelerometers were placed on subject's arms and legs to measure accelerations in the anterior-posterior, medial-lateral and inferior-superior directions. Subjects (patients and healthy subjects) accomplished an extended Timed Up & Go Test (TUG). The data from the accelerometers were preprocessed, and then the bilateral cyclograms of two synchronized accelerations were created and evaluated. Using the cyclograms we confirmed the hypothesis that patients with PD have asymmetrical movements of the limbs. Omitting medication 24 hours before the measurement in patients with early stage PD had little effect on the synkinesias of gait. Findings suggest the possibility of the designed application of wearable MoCap system and bilateral cyclograms for use in drug therapy by evaluating postural stability via measuring accelerations. Thus, method using accelerometers and bilateral cyclograms is newly proposed for patients with PD.

Analyzing gait symmetry with automatically synchronized wearable sensors in daily life

“…The symmetry of arms and legs, as well as the symmetry of the upper and lower limbs with each other, investigate only a few papers [25][26][27] . Changes of interlimb coordination in individuals with PD and healthy older adults while systematically manipulating walking speed are compared to determine the impact of PD symptoms on interlimb coordination [25] .…”

“…Another system focuses on the study of the impact of PD on synkinesias (i.e., the symmetry of movement) during walking, and the effect of medication on the gait symmetry [27] . Every patient was tested and measured using IMU-sensors in his ON and OFF state.…”

“…The disadvantage is that the measurements cannot be carried out in daily life. Only camera systems for laboratory measurements were found in the literature [27] . Wearable systems, in contrast, could be an alternative for making symmetry measurements of gait in daily life, but they are not time-synchronized.…”

Analysis and Classification of Motor Dysfunctions in Arm Swing in Parkinson’s Disease

“…However, the analysis of the arm movement is also important for the assessment of a gait disorder. Stationary systems that use cameras or ultrasound [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] and mobile systems with inertial sensors [20][21][22] are used to measure the arm swing.…”

“…A similar system was used in [22] with nearly the same sensors and sensor position. An eigenvector method was suggested to compare the axes of the left and right hand.…”