Preliminary evaluation of SensHand V1 in assessing motor skills performance in Parkinson disease

Abstract

Nowadays, the increasing old population 65+ as well as the pace imposed by work activities lead to a high number of people that have particular injuries for limbs. In addition to persistent or temporary disabilities related to accidental injuries we must take into account that part of the population suffers from motor deficits of the hands due to stroke or diseases of various clinical nature. The most recurrent technological solutions to measure the rehabilitation or skill motor performance of the hand are glove-based devices, able to faithfully capture the movements of the hand and fingers. This paper presents a system for hand motion analysis based on 9-axis complete inertial modules and dedicated microcontroller which are fixed on fingers and forearm. The technological solution presented is able to track the patients' hand motions in real-time and then to send data through wireless communication reducing the clutter and the disadvantages of a glove equipped with sensors through a different technological structure. The device proposed has been tested in the study of Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease and wearable devices, new perspectives for a public health issue: an integrative literature review

“…Currently, such monitoring can be done from devices that utilize accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, and electromyography sensors, with possible uses such as the clinical observation of falls, tremors, bradykinesia, gait disorders, and mobility fluctuations 15 . The most appropriate way to measure the motor performance of patients seems to be the use of wearable devices based on inertial sensors, which can acquire data with a high sampling rate 13,[16][17][18] . This has been developed for the assessment of several motor symptoms using a single or multiple systems.…”

Wearable sensors for gesture analysis in smart healthcare applications

“…The SensHand is a device developed by Cavallo et al [22] [29] in 2013. This device is composed of four, nine-axis inertial sensor units to be worn on the hand as rings and bracelet.…”

“…A novel single-index-based assessment approach for quantitative upperlimb mobility evaluation was proposed for post-stroke rehabilitation. Similarly, in 2013 Cavallo et al [22] used the SensHand device to access the PwPD patients tremors. To evaluate the severity of the disease, different biomechanical parameters were evaluated from the signals coming from the accelerometers and the gyroscopes.…”

Upper Limb Interactive Weightless Technology-Aided Intervention and Assessment Picks Out Motor Skills Improvement in Parkinson's Disease: A Pilot Study

“…At the best of our knowledge, few clinical studies in PD exist, which involve the adoption of a robotic or a mechanic device in order to improve upper limb mobility (15)(16)(17). Among these, exoskeleton devices aided by augmented feedback exercises, actually available for routine use, demonstrated successful results particularly in stroke rehabilitation (18,19).…”