Elble Rodger J, McNames James
Department of Neurology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science, Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA.
Tremor Other Hyperkinet Mov (N Y). 2016 May 17;6:375. doi: 10.7916/D8DR2VCC. eCollection 2016.
Portable motion transducers, suitable for measuring tremor, are now available at a reasonable cost. The use of these transducers requires knowledge of their limitations and data analysis. The purpose of this review is to provide a practical overview and example software for using portable motion transducers in the quantification of tremor.
Medline was searched via PubMed.gov in December 2015 using the Boolean expression "tremor AND (accelerometer OR accelerometry OR gyroscope OR inertial measurement unit OR digitizing tablet OR transducer)." Abstracts of 419 papers dating back to 1964 were reviewed for relevant portable transducers and methods of tremor analysis, and 105 papers written in English were reviewed in detail.
Accelerometers, gyroscopes, and digitizing tablets are used most commonly, but few are sold for the purpose of measuring tremor. Consequently, most software for tremor analysis is developed by the user. Wearable transducers are capable of recording tremor continuously, in the absence of a clinician. Tremor amplitude, frequency, and occurrence (percentage of time with tremor) can be computed. Tremor amplitude and occurrence correlate strongly with clinical ratings of tremor severity.
Transducers provide measurements of tremor amplitude that are objective, precise, and valid, but the precision and accuracy of transducers are mitigated by natural variability in tremor amplitude. This variability is so great that the minimum detectable change in amplitude, exceeding random variability, is comparable for scales and transducers. Research is needed to determine the feasibility of detecting smaller change using averaged data from continuous long-term recordings with wearable transducers.
现在已有价格合理、适用于测量震颤的便携式运动传感器。使用这些传感器需要了解其局限性及数据分析方法。本综述的目的是提供一份关于使用便携式运动传感器进行震颤量化的实用概述及示例软件。
2015年12月通过PubMed.gov检索Medline，使用布尔表达式“震颤 AND（加速度计 OR 加速度测量法 OR 陀螺仪 OR 惯性测量单元 OR 数字化仪 OR 传感器）”。回顾了419篇可追溯至1964年的论文摘要，以查找相关的便携式传感器及震颤分析方法，并详细审阅了105篇英文撰写的论文。
加速度计、陀螺仪和数字化仪使用最为普遍，但专门用于测量震颤的产品很少。因此，大多数震颤分析软件是由用户自行开发的。可穿戴式传感器能够在没有临床医生在场的情况下持续记录震颤。可以计算震颤幅度、频率和发生率（震颤发生时间的百分比）。震颤幅度和发生率与震颤严重程度的临床评分密切相关。
传感器提供的震颤幅度测量结果客观、精确且有效，但震颤幅度的自然变异性会降低传感器的精度和准确性。这种变异性非常大，以至于超过随机变异性的幅度最小可检测变化对于量表和传感器来说是相当的。需要开展研究以确定使用可穿戴式传感器连续长期记录的平均数据来检测较小变化的可行性。
