Parkinson’s Disease and the Future of Balance and Gait Rehabilitation
April is Parkinson’s Awareness month and many organizations are showing their support for the millions of people worldwide who suffer from the disorder. While there is currently no known cure for Parkinson’s, recent advances in medical research and technology have made it possible to better understand the disorder, its symptoms and what can be done to improve patients’ lives.
Supporting Parkinson’s Research
Today it is widely agreed upon that movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease are caused by a shortage of the brain chemical dopamine. This deficit results in a number of physical and cognitive complications, including the tell-tale tremor of Parkinson’s patients. In order to treat the underlying dopamine issues, levodopa and other dopaminergic medications are prescribed.
Unfortunately, long-term use of dopamine therapy can produce a number of side-effects, including dyskinesia: an abnormality or impairment of voluntary movement. The only proven method to reducing dyskinesia symptoms is the reduction or adjustment of the levodopa prescription, but this is typically followed by an increase in Parkinson’s symptoms such as rigidity and tremors.
Further research has resulted in the development of compounds designed specifically to treat dyskinesia symptoms, but clinical trials have failed due to, among other reasons, a lack of reliable strategies for assessing abnormal movement.
Monitoring and Analysis of Balance and Gait
The key to eventually managing dyskinesia and other symptoms for Parkinson’s disease lies in the development of high-quality sensors capable of accurately logging weeks of data. By objectively quantifying and recording patients’ movements, researchers are able to better understand the severity of their impairment and see the effects of experimental treatments continuously over a period of time, as opposed to a single visit to the lab.
A 2016 study performed by scientists in Germany found that the data from just one ankle-worn sensor correctly detected leg dyskinesia in patients suffering from Parkinson’s with an accuracy of 0.96. All patients in a following sub-study were accurately analyzed and classified by the sensor’s internal algorithm.
Monitoring sensors are also able to detect other gait and balance difficulties such as problems with turning, which is a major contributor to disability and falls in patients with Parkinson’s. One study concluded subjects with the disease showed an impaired quality of turning, and that continuous monitoring using kinematic sensors proved to be a more accurate data recording technique than simple observation.
Quantifying Human Movement
APDM Wearable Technologies was created in 2007 when Dr. James McNames and his cofounders sought to create an unobtrusive wearable movement sensor capable of logging high-bandwidth data from people with Parkinson’s disease for weeks at a time. Today, APDM’s solutions are considered the gold-standard for neurological research, being used in over 500 universities worldwide and referenced in hundreds of peer-reviewed journals.
