Objective: To collect spatiotemporal parameter information of motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) using wearable device, and analyze its correlation with the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) scores, in order to provide an objective basis for the clinical evaluation of the efficacy of medications for patients with PD.

Background: PD is a chronic neurological disease characterized by deterioration of the dopaminergic neurons in the brain. Wearable motion sensors and mobile devices such as smartphones have the potential to provide an objective, large-scale measurement of symptom fluctuation with minimal patient burden. However, the valuable parameters that could be used to assess the motor symptoms is still unknown.

Method: Twenty-two patients with PD were enrolled in the Department of Geriatrics, Affiliated Brain Hospital of Nanjing Medical University. General clinical data were collected, and the levodopa impact test was performed. Wearable devices were used to collect PD patients’ motion parameters before and after taking the drug, including total steps of ten meters, stride length, step length, stride velocity, step frequency, stride time, support phase rate, swing phase rate, support phase time, swing phase time. The UPDRS scale was used to assess the motor symptoms scores of PD patients. The paired t test was used to compare the changes in spatiotemporal parameters of PD patients before and after taking the drug.

Results: After taking the medicine, patients with PD had a total of 10 meters of round trips, average stride length, average step length, pace, step frequency, average value of swing phase, and average value of swing time decreased compared with that before taking the drug (p <0.05). The average stride time, the average support phase, and the average support time increased (p <0.05). Among them, the total number of round trips, the average of the stride length, and the average of the step length had a significant correlation with the improvement of the UPDRS score (p <0.01).

Conclusion: The spatiotemporal parameters collected by the wearable device, such as the total number of round trips of 10 meters, the average of the stride, and the average of the step length, had a good consistency with the improvement of the movement symptoms. We can evaluate the changes of these parameters to evaluate the effect of levodopa on patients with PD.

References: 1.Brognara, Lorenzo, Palumbo, et al. Assessing Gait in Parkinson’s Disease Using Wearable Motion Sensors: A Systematic Review[J]. Diseases, 2019.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/researches-on-the-correlation-between-wearable-device-data-and-updrs-scores-in-patients-with-parkinsons-disease/