Hsu Yu-Liang, Chung Pau-Choo Julia, Wang Wei-Hsin, Pai Ming-Chyi, Wang Chun-Yao, Lin Chien-Wen, Wu Hao-Li, Wang Jeen-Shing
IEEE J Biomed Health Inform. 2014 Nov;18(6):1822-30. doi: 10.1109/JBHI.2014.2325413.
Despite patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) were reported of revealing gait disorders and balance problems, there is still lack of objective quantitative measurement of gait patterns and balance capability of AD patients. Based on an inertial-sensor-based wearable device, this paper develops gait and balance analyzing algorithms to obtain quantitative measurements and explores the essential indicators from the measurements for AD diagnosis. The gait analyzing algorithm is composed of stride detection followed by gait cycle decomposition so that gait parameters are developed from the decomposed gait details. On the other hand, the balance is measured by the sway speed in anterior-posterior (AP) and medial-lateral (ML) directions of the projection path of body's center of mass (COM). These devised gait and balance parameters were explored on twenty-one AD patients and fifty healthy controls (HCs). Special evaluation procedure including single-task and dual-task walking experiments for observing the cognitive function and attention is also devised for the comparison of AD and HC groups. Experimental results show that the wearable instrument with the designed gait and balance analyzing system is a promising tool for automatically analyzing gait information and balance ability, serving as assistant indicators for early diagnosis of AD.
尽管有报道称阿尔茨海默病（AD）患者存在步态障碍和平衡问题，但目前仍缺乏对AD患者步态模式和平衡能力的客观定量测量方法。基于一种基于惯性传感器的可穿戴设备，本文开发了步态和平衡分析算法以获得定量测量结果，并从这些测量结果中探索用于AD诊断的关键指标。步态分析算法由步幅检测和步态周期分解组成，从而从分解后的步态细节中得出步态参数。另一方面，通过身体重心（COM）投影路径的前后（AP）和左右（ML）方向的摇摆速度来测量平衡。在21名AD患者和50名健康对照者（HCs）身上对这些设计的步态和平衡参数进行了研究。还设计了包括单任务和双任务步行实验在内的特殊评估程序，以观察认知功能和注意力，用于AD组和HC组的比较。实验结果表明，配备设计的步态和平衡分析系统的可穿戴仪器是自动分析步态信息和平衡能力的有前途的工具，可作为AD早期诊断的辅助指标。
