Giansanti Daniele, Maccioni Giovanni, Morelli Sandra
Technology and Health Department, The Italian National Institute of Health, Rome, Italy.
Telemed J E Health. 2008 Jun;14(5):467-72. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2007.0078.
Step counting is an important index of motion activity and it is currently used in the management of obesity, in applications for the prevention of cardiovascular problems, in diabetes care, and in motion rehabilitation. Commercial pedometers are not appropriate for telemonitoring subjects with motion disability such as Parkinson's disease. The aim of this paper was to test the integration of a Gastrocnemius Expansion Measurement Unit (GEMU) for step counting in a telemedicine application involving subjects with Parkinson's Disease. The test of GEMU in a new model of care was performed on 6 subjects with Parkinson's disease at Level 3 of the Tinetti test of unbalance. They were asked to record binary information about the correct assumption of dopaminergic therapy. Results showed greater than 97% success of monitoring. A statistical analysis also shows (p < 0.05) the feasibility of correlating the decrement of mobility in terms of the step counting with an incorrect assumption of dopaminergic therapy. Furthermore, the methodology showed a high degree of acceptance, and the users gave suggestions for future improvements, especially related to the interface between GEMU and home care itself.
步数计数是运动活动的一项重要指标，目前被用于肥胖管理、心血管疾病预防、糖尿病护理以及运动康复等领域。商业计步器并不适用于对患有运动障碍（如帕金森病）的受试者进行远程监测。本文的目的是在一个涉及帕金森病患者的远程医疗应用中，测试用于步数计数的腓肠肌扩张测量单元（GEMU）的集成情况。在Tinetti不平衡测试3级的6名帕金森病患者身上，对GEMU在一种新的护理模式中进行了测试。他们被要求记录关于多巴胺能治疗正确服用情况的二元信息。结果显示监测成功率超过97%。一项统计分析还表明（p < 0.05），在步数计数方面，将运动能力下降与多巴胺能治疗服用不当相关联是可行的。此外，该方法显示出高度的可接受性，用户对未来的改进提出了建议，特别是与GEMU和家庭护理本身之间的界面有关的建议。
