Usefulness of Mobile Devices in the Diagnosis and Rehabilitation of Patients with Dizziness and Balance Disorders: A State of the Art Review

Abstract

Objective The gold standard for objective body posture examination is posturography. Body movements are detected through the use of force platforms that assess static and dynamic balance (conventional posturography). In recent years, new technologies like wearable sensors (mobile posturography) have been applied during complex dynamic activities to diagnose and rehabilitate balance disorders. They are used in healthy people, especially in the aging population, for detecting falls in the older adults, in the rehabilitation of different neurological, osteoarticular, and muscular system diseases, and in vestibular disorders. Mobile devices are portable, lightweight, and less expensive than conventional posturography. The vibrotactile system can consist of an accelerometer (linear acceleration measurement), gyroscopes (angular acceleration measurement), and magnetometers (heading measurement, relative to the Earth’s magnetic field). The sensors may be mounted to the trunk (most often in the lumbar region of the spine, and the pelvis), wrists, arms, sternum, feet, or shins. Some static and dynamic clinical tests have been performed with the use of wearable sensors. Smartphones are widely used as a mobile computing platform and to evaluate the results or monitor the patient during the movement and rehabilitation. There are various mobile applications for smartphone-based balance systems. Future research should focus on validating the sensitivity and reliability of mobile device measurements compared to conventional posturography. Conclusion Smartphone based mobile devices are limited to one sensor lumbar level posturography and offer basic clinical evaluation. Single or multi sensor mobile posturography is available from different manufacturers and offers single to multi-level measurements, providing more data and in some instances even performing sophisticated clinical balance tests.

Utility of the Novel MediPost Mobile Posturography Device in the Assessment of Patients with a Unilateral Vestibular Disorder

“…Recently, the development of mobile technologies has allowed researchers to provide a more direct measurement of COM using mobile posturography (MP). There are several approaches to MP, but mostly these devices consist of an accelerometer and a gyroscope placed in the lumbar area [ 14 ]. MP allows for the evaluation of human balance in daily-life situations and more complex tasks [ 15 ], which is an important development towards monitoring patients with balance disorders or detecting falls or the exacerbation of symptoms via telemedical services.…”

Dynamic Visual Stimulations Produced in a Controlled Virtual Reality Environment Reveals Long-Lasting Postural Deficits in Children With Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

“…It also must be noted that the scale used for post-concussion symptom assessment was the one included in the ImPACT test, which has been normed for children as of age 11 but there are 3 children aged 9 and 10 years in each group, for whom scores could be less valid. Regarding the VR postural test, it will be of interest to validate whether measurements taken from the lower back (closest to the center of mass), which have shown very good accuracy (98.42%) for fall detection, provide similar or more accurate results of postural response compared to measures taken from the head position ( 78 ), which have shown good accuracy (96.61%) for fall detection in a previous study ( 79 ).…”

Assessing gait, balance, and muscle strength among breast cancer survivors with chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN): study protocol for a randomized controlled clinical trial

“…The APDM Opal (Mobility lab v1, APDM, Inc., Portland, OR) inertial measurement units (IMU) system assesses gait. The APDM IMUs are wireless sensors for measuring motion that allows clinicians to perform gait assessments quickly and straightforwardly [ 17 , 18 ]. Balance is assessed using the Sensory Organization Test (SOT) performed using a NeuroCom Balance Master (NeuroCom International Inc, Clackamas, OR) and the EquitTest System (v8.0).…”

“…The APDM Opal (Mobility lab v1, APDM, Inc., Portland, OR) inertial measurement units (IMU) are used to assess gait. The APDM IMUs are wireless sensors for measuring motion that allows clinicians to perform gait assessments quickly [ 17 , 18 ]. The APDM Opal wireless sensors are positioned directly on the participant’s skin at the sacrum, laterally on each upper and lower leg, and each foot (Fig.…”