Abstract
Parkinson's disease (PD) alters the motor performance of affected individuals. The dopaminergic denervation of the striatum, due to substantia nigra neuronal loss, compromises the speed, the automatism and smoothness of movements of PD patients. The development of a reliable tool for long-term monitoring of PD symptoms would allow the accurate assessment of the clinical status during the different PD stages and the evaluation of motor complications. Furthermore, it would be very useful both for routine clinical care as well as for testing novel therapies. Within this context we have validated the feasibility of using a Body Network Area (BAN) of wireless accelerometers to perform continuous at home gait monitoring of PD patients. The analysis addresses the assessment of the system performance working in real environments.
Highlights
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer’s disease and it is expected to impose an increasing social and economic burden on society in the coming decades
In the last release of the PERFORM platform, the four accelerometers in the limbs work simultaneously and transmit data in separate time slots avoiding most of the packet loss
The first and most obvious reason is that home telehealth systems need the participation and cooperation of patients and caregivers to work efficiently
Summary
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer’s disease and it is expected to impose an increasing social and economic burden on society in the coming decades. The prevalence of PD in industrialized countries is generally estimated at 0.3% of the entire population and about 1% in people over 60 years of age. Reported standardized incidence rates of PD are. Onset of PD is rare before age 50 and a sharp increase of the incidence is seen after age 60 [1]. About 20% of people over the age of 80 have Parkinsonism-associated gait disturbances. The major motor disturbances in PD are bradykinesia (i.e., slowness of movement), hypokinesia (decreased movement amplitude), resting tremors, rigidity, and postural instability [2]
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