Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK.
UK Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, UK.
J Alzheimers Dis. 2018;63(1):331-341. doi: 10.3233/JAD-171116.
Gait is emerging as a potential diagnostic tool for cognitive decline. The 'Deep and Frequent Phenotyping for Experimental Medicine in Dementia Study' (D&FP) is a multicenter feasibility study embedded in the United Kingdom Dementia Platform designed to determine participant acceptability and feasibility of extensive and repeated phenotyping to determine the optimal combination of biomarkers to detect disease progression and identify early risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Gait is included as a clinical biomarker. The tools to quantify gait in the clinic and home, and suitability for multi-center application have not been examined. Six centers from the National Institute for Health Research Translational Research Collaboration in Dementia initiative recruited 20 individuals with early onset AD. Participants wore a single wearable (tri-axial accelerometer) and completed both clinic-based and free-living gait assessment. A series of macro (behavioral) and micro (spatiotemporal) characteristics were derived from the resultant data using previously validated algorithms. Results indicate good participant acceptability, and potential for use of body-worn sensors in both the clinic and the home. Recommendations for future studies have been provided. Gait has been demonstrated to be a feasible and suitable measure, and future research should examine its suitability as a biomarker in AD.
步态正逐渐成为认知能力下降的一种潜在诊断工具。“深度和频繁表型对痴呆症的实验医学研究”（D&FP）是一项嵌入英国痴呆症平台的多中心可行性研究，旨在确定广泛和重复表型的参与者可接受性和可行性，以确定最佳的生物标志物组合，以检测疾病进展并识别阿尔茨海默病（AD）的早期风险。步态被纳入临床生物标志物。用于在诊所和家庭中量化步态的工具以及是否适合多中心应用尚未得到检验。来自国家卫生研究院转化研究合作组织的痴呆症倡议的六个中心招募了 20 名早期发病的 AD 患者。参与者佩戴了单个可穿戴设备（三轴加速度计），并完成了基于诊所的和自由生活的步态评估。使用先前验证的算法，从所得数据中得出了一系列宏观（行为）和微观（时空）特征。结果表明参与者的接受程度良好，并且在诊所和家庭中使用身体传感器具有潜力。为未来的研究提供了建议。步态已被证明是一种可行且合适的测量方法，未来的研究应检验其作为 AD 生物标志物的适用性。
