Citation

Cancela J, Pastorino M, Arredondo MT, Nikita KS, Villagra F, Pastor MA. Sensors (Basel) 2014; 14(3): 4618-4633.

Affiliation

Division of Neurosciences, Center for Applied Medical Research (CIMA), University of Navarra, Pamplona 31008, Spain. mapastor@unav.es.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/s140304618

PMID

24608005

Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD) alters the motor performance of affected individuals. The dopaminergic denervation of the striatum, due to substantia nigra neuronal loss, compromises the speed, the automatism and smoothness of movements of PD patients. The development of a reliable tool for long-term monitoring of PD symptoms would allow the accurate assessment of the clinical status during the different PD stages and the evaluation of motor complications. Furthermore, it would be very useful both for routine clinical care as well as for testing novel therapies. Within this context we have validated the feasibility of using a Body Network Area (BAN) of wireless accelerometers to perform continuous at home gait monitoring of PD patients. The analysis addresses the assessment of the system performance working in real environments.

Language: en