Nguyen Khoa D, Corben Louise A, Pathirana Pubudu N, Horne Malcolm K, Delatycki Martin B, Szmulewicz David J
Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2019 Jul;2019:317-320. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2019.8857107.
Continuous and objective assessment is essential for accurate monitoring of the progression of neurodegenerative conditions such as Friedreich ataxia. However, current clinical assessments predominantly rely on the ability of the affected individual to complete specific clinical tests which may not capture the intricate kinematic details associated with ataxia Moreover, such testing often consists of a level of subjectivity of the assessing clinician. In this paper, we propose an objective measuring instrument, in the form of a spoon, equipped with the Internet-of-Things (IoT) based system and relevant machine learning techniques to quantitatively assess impairment levels while engaged in routine daily activity. In a clinical study involving individuals diagnosed with Friedreich ataxia, movement patterns during a simulated eating task were captured and kinematic biomarkers were extracted that were consistent with the frequently-used clinical rating scales. Multivariate analysis of these biomarkers allows us to accurately classify individuals with Friedreich ataxia and control subjects to an accuracy of 91%. Furthermore, the kinematic information captured from the spoon can be used to introduce an alternative assessment scheme with a greater sensitivity to ataxic movements and with less inter-rater discrepancy.
持续且客观的评估对于准确监测诸如弗里德赖希共济失调等神经退行性疾病的进展至关重要。然而,当前的临床评估主要依赖于受影响个体完成特定临床测试的能力,而这些测试可能无法捕捉到与共济失调相关的复杂运动学细节。此外,此类测试往往包含评估临床医生的一定主观性。在本文中,我们提出了一种以勺子形式呈现的客观测量仪器,其配备了基于物联网(IoT)的系统和相关机器学习技术,以便在日常活动中定量评估损伤程度。在一项涉及被诊断为弗里德赖希共济失调个体的临床研究中,捕捉了模拟进食任务期间的运动模式,并提取了与常用临床评分量表一致的运动学生物标志物。对这些生物标志物进行多变量分析使我们能够以91%的准确率准确区分弗里德赖希共济失调个体和对照受试者。此外,从勺子捕获的运动学信息可用于引入一种对共济失调运动更敏感且评分者间差异更小的替代评估方案。