Background: Patients with severe idiopathic Parkinson's disease experience motor fluctuations, which are often difficult to control. Accurate mapping of such motor fluctuations could help improve patients' treatment.
Objective: The objective of the study was to focus on developing and validating an automatic detector of motor fluctuations. The device is small, wearable, and detects the motor phase while the patients walk in their daily activities.
Methods: Algorithms for detection of motor fluctuations were developed on the basis of experimental data from 20 patients who were asked to wear the detector while performing different daily life activities, both in controlled (laboratory) and noncontrolled environments. Patients with motor fluctuations completed the experimental protocol twice: (1) once in the ON, and (2) once in the OFF phase. The validity of the algorithms was tested on 15 different patients who were asked to wear the detector for several hours while performing daily activities in their habitual environments. In order to assess the validity of detector measurements, the results of the algorithms were compared with data collected by trained observers who were accompanying the patients all the time.
Results: The motor fluctuation detector showed a mean sensitivity of 0.96 (median 1; interquartile range, IQR, 0.93-1) and specificity of 0.94 (median 0.96; IQR, 0.90-1).
Conclusions: ON/OFF motor fluctuations in Parkinson's patients can be detected with a single sensor, which can be worn in everyday life.
Keywords: accelerometer; kinematic sensor; motor fluctuations.