Quantitative continuous measurement of movements in the extremities

We hypothesized that (1) correlation of (A) the output of instrumentation to generate quantitative continuous measurements of movements and (B) the quantitative measurements of trained examiners using structured ratings of movements would generate the tools to differentiate the movements of (A) Parkinson's disease (PD), (B) parkinsonian syndromes, and health, and (2) continuous quantitative measurements of movements would improve the ratings generated by visual observations of trained raters, and provide pathognomonic signatures to identify PD and parkinsonian syndromes.

A protocol for a low-cost quantitative continuous measurement of movements in the extremities of people with PD (McKay, et al., 2019) was administered to people with PD and multiple system atrophy-parkinsonian type (MSA-P) and age- and sex-matched healthy control participants. Data from instrumentation was saved as WinDaq files (Dataq Instruments, Inc., Akron, Ohio) and converted into Excel files (McKay, et al., 2019) using the WinDaq Waveform Data Browser (Dataq Instruments, Inc., Akron, Ohio).

Participants were asked to sit in a straight-back chair with arms approximately six inches from the wall to minimize the risk of hitting the wall. The examiner sat in a similar chair facing the participant. The examiner asked the technologist and the videographer to begin recording immediately before instructing the participant to perform each item.

Items were scored live by the examiner at the same time that the quantitative continuous measurements of movements were recorded by the instrumentation.

Healthy control participants were matched for age and sex with participants with PD. The key identifies the diagnosis (PD = Parkinson's disease, MSA-P = Multiple system atrophy - parkinsonian type, HC = healthy control, 1 = male, 0 = female). Participants with PD completed a single test session (0002, 0005, 0007-0009, 0012, 0017-0018, and 0021), a test and a retest session (0001, 0003, 0006, 0010-0011, 0013, 0015, 0019, 0022-0023), or a test and two retest sessions (0014). HC participants completed test and retest sessions (0020, 0024-0030). A participant with MSA-P (0004) completed a test session.
Individual files for the WinDaq, Excel, and coding forms for each testing are entered in the dataset. The Excel files for the five repetitive items were converted to fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) and continuous wavelet transforms (CWTs) (MatLab).

The laterality of signals and transforms for test ratings of the upper extremity for participant 30 were reversed.

No files were filtered.

Findings were presented at the MDS Congress Virtual.