Guidelines for filming digital camera video clips for the assessment of gait and movement disorders by teleneurology

Abstract

Digital still cameras capable of filming short video clips are readily available, but the quality of these recordings for telemedicine has not been reported. We performed a blinded study using four commonly available digital cameras. A simulated patient with a hemiplegic gait pattern was filmed by the same videographer in an identical, brightly lit indoor setting. Six neurologists viewed the blinded video clips on their PC and comparisons were made between cameras, between video clips recorded with and without a tripod, and between video clips filmed on high- or low-quality settings. Use of a tripod had a smaller effect than expected, while images taken on a high-quality setting were strongly preferred to those taken on a low-quality setting. Although there was some variability in video quality between selected cameras, all were of sufficient quality to identify physical signs such as gait and tremor. Adequate-quality video clips of movement disorders can be produced with low-cost cameras and transmitted by email for teleneurology purposes.

Ambulatory Monitoring of Activities and Motor Symptoms in Parkinson's Disease

“…The activities of the subject were videotaped. The video recording was of a satisfactory quality, i.e., resolution of 720 × 576 pixels and a rate of 25 frames/second [16]. Using this video, actual activities were visually determined as a gold standard to which the PD monitor's AC output was compared.…”

Teleneurology: is it really at a distance?

“…There have been attempts to evaluate video quality for assessment of gait and physical signs in movement disorders. Video transmission using HQ camera settings (320 9 240) at a rate of at least 15 frames per second has been recommended for reliable characterisation of physical signs [56]. Uniformity in the formats and transfer of videoconferencing data will be particularly useful in telemedicine applications across wide geographical areas and to overcome heterogeneity in operating systems.…”

“…Remote examination of rigidity could not be performed as well, however. A 340 9 120 pixel resolution camera for video recording can be used to detect gait and tremor reliably at fairly low costs [56].…”

Possibilities of non-drug treatment for Parkinson’s disease

“…Оптоэлектронные методы сложны в использовании и дорогостоящи. Более доступны электри-ческие методы ихнографии, однако большинство из них требует использования специальной обуви либо соедине-ния при помощи кабеля закрепленных на обуви пациента электродов и считывающего устройства, что изменяет стереотип ходьбы и отражается на конечных результатах исследования [14][15][16][17]. В связи с этим чрезвычайно акту-альны задачи создания простого, но достаточно информа-тивного метода регистрации ходьбы, выбора критериев оценки походки с целью более полного понимания ее ме-ханизмов в норме и патологии.…”