Administration of a low-cost quantitative continuous measurement of movements of the extremities of people with Parkinson’s disease

A low-cost quantitative continuous measurement of movements in the extremities of people with Parkinson’s disease was developed to enhance the gold-standard structured assessment of people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) assessed by the visual observation by the examiner of the person with PD (Goetz, et al., 2008) with the recorded output of signals to document the three dimensions of the positions in space of the finger and wrist or the toe and ankle of the participant performing tasks that may be impaired in people with PD (McKay, et al., 2019). The accelerometers were taped to the dorsal surface of the second (middle) phalanx of the index finger and the dorsum of the arm midway between the radius and the ulna two inches from the wrist joint to measure the movements in the upper extremity and to the dorsal surface of the proximal phalanx of the first (big) toe and the anterior surface of the tibia two inches proximal to the medial malleolus to measure the movements of the lower extremity (McKay, et al.,2019). The examiner instructed the participant how to perform each task. The examiner demonstrated the movements. The examiner did not continue to perform the movements while the participant was performing them. After the participant began the task, the examiner instructed the participant to perform each movement as quickly and fully as possible. The examiner encouraged the participant to execute each motion with the maximal speed and range of motion. The examiner sought to capture at least ten optimal repetitions for each motion. In order to attain a minimum of ten top-notch repetitions the examiner asked the participant to perform many more repetitions. The ten optimal repetitions could later be extracted for further analysis. The data shows a trained examiner administering the procedures to a healthy 68-year-old male participant with typical development. A videographer recorded the performance of the procedure by the participant.

The data from this procedure performed on cohorts of individuals with Parkinson’s disease and multiple system atrophy and healthy age- and sex-matched individuals with typical development have been published (Harrigan, et al., 2020).