Feasibility Study of a Wearable System Based on a Wireless Body Area Network for Gait Assessment in Parkinson’s Disease Patients
Jorge Cancela,
Matteo Pastorino,
Maria T. Arredondo,
Konstantina S. Nikita,
Federico Villagra,
Maria A. Pastor
Affiliations
Jorge Cancela
Campus de Excelencia Internacional (CEI) Moncloa, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (UPM)-Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), Ciudad Universitaria, Madrid 28003, Spain
Matteo Pastorino
Life Supporting Technologies Group, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (UPM), Ciudad Universitaria, Madrid 28003, Spain
Maria T. Arredondo
Life Supporting Technologies Group, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (UPM), Ciudad Universitaria, Madrid 28003, Spain
Konstantina S. Nikita
Biomedical Simulations and Imaging Laboratory, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Iroon Polytechniou 9, Athens 15780, Greece
Federico Villagra
Division of Neurosciences, Center for Applied Medical Research (CIMA), University of Navarra, Pamplona 31008, Spain
Maria A. Pastor
Division of Neurosciences, Center for Applied Medical Research (CIMA), University of Navarra, Pamplona 31008, Spain
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.
