A Novel Parameterisation of Phase Plots for Monitoring of Parkinson's Disease.

Abstract

Parkinson's Disease (PD) can lead to impaired/slowed movement, gait impairments and increased risk of falling. Wearable technology-based gait analysis is emerging as a powerful tool to detect early disease and monitor progression. Here we present a novel approach to producing an objective, compact and personalised overview of a patient's gait pattern. Phase plots were constructed in 41 people with PD and 38 controls (CL) from accelerometry data collected during straight intermittent walks with a single triaxial accelerometer placed on the lower back. Phase plots were analysed using bivariate Gaussian mixture models and classified based on several apparent features derived from the parameters of said model. Significant differences in phase plot form were found between and PD and CL subjects; with a very high within-subject consistency (reproducibility) (p <; 0.0001). PD and CL subjects differ in the types of phase plots produced (p <; 0.001). Strong connections between spatio-temporal (ST) gait characteristics and phase plot types were found. The presented novel methodology not only showed to be sensitive to pathology (PD vs CL), but can quickly produce a unique fingerprint of a person's gait. This work presents encouraging results for clinical application of an objective, personalised gait feature for disease monitoring and clinical applications.