Develop a visual stimulus with ambulatory device for Parkinson's patients to improve the stride length

Abstract

Background and purpose Parkinson’s disease (PD) is persistent and progressive disease of nervous system. The pathology of basal ganglia which affects the consistency of Dopamine results in movement disorders. PD has been found to affect an elderly population, especially over 75 years of age. It isn’t caused by sexes and genes. According to examination of epidemiology, there are about 25’000 people in Taiwan. In the other country, the United States, affecting approximately 1% of people over 65 years, and increasing the rate by older age. In the clinical observation, signs of Parkinson’s disease are conventional. The common symptoms of akinesia are listing below and having a description : rigidity 、 bradykinesia、postural reflexes、tremor, and so on. Gait problems are also common symptoms that might cause fall, slip, and flip. PD patients often met accidents. In order to improve the gait performance and prevent from generating a shuffling gait, PD would usually receive external cues or physical therapy. Some researchers verified that visual, auditory, and tactile cues could help PD patients, especially visual tool in stride length. Furthermore, dual-motor tasks would aggravate gait. So only using visual cue is the best method enhance the stride length. But no references indicated that visual cue plays which the role is, direction or step line. Ambulatory devices are common tools for PD patients who have balance problems and postural impairment. Whether standard or wheeled walkers with laser light is used by patients, it is proved that could not improve the gait including stride length, cadence, and velocity, freezing symptom which also often leads to fall would be aggravated by standard walker. Our purpose is to design a walker with laser light to assist PD patients to improve their stride length.