Abstract
A new system for long-term monitoring of gait in Parkinson's disease (PD) has been developed and validated. The characteristics of every stride taken over 10-h epochs were acquired using a lightweight ankle-mounted sensor array that transmitted data wirelessly to a small pocket PC at a rate of 100 Hz. Stride was calculated from the vertical linear acceleration and pitch angular velocity of the leg with an accuracy of 5 cm. Results from PD patients (5) demonstrate the effectiveness of long-term monitoring of gait in a natural environment. The small, variable stride length characteristic of Parkinsonian gait, and fluctuations of efficacy associated with levodopa therapy, such as delayed onset, wearing off, and the 'off/on' effect, could reliably be detected from long-term changes in stride length.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 200-207 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Gait and Posture |
Volume | 26 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 2007 |
Keywords
- Accelerometer
- Levodopa
- Locomotion
- Parkinsonian
- Stride length
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biophysics
- Orthopedics and Sports Medicine
- Rehabilitation