Smartphone for the diagnosis of parkinsonism
A group of researchers from the USA and the UK, led by Dr. Suchi Saria from Johns Hopkins University, demonstrated the ability to track the severity of Parkinson's disease symptoms with high accuracy using smartphone software and technology developed by them.
One of the factors complicating the treatment of Parkinson's disease is a wide range of fluctuation of symptoms throughout the day. This turns the process of tracking the progression of the disease and optimizing therapy into an extremely difficult task for the attending physician, who can receive information about the patient's condition once every few months during a scheduled appointment. This variability also limits the possibilities of evaluating the effectiveness of experimental treatment methods.
The study involved 129 people who remotely performed a series of tasks using an application installed on a smartphone. This HopkinsPD app, originally developed by Associate Professor Max Little from Aston University in the UK, consists of a series of tasks evaluating changes in voice tone, keystroke speed, walking speed and the ability to maintain balance.
In addition to completing the tasks of the application, the study participants were examined by neurologists both at home and in the clinic. At the same time, the information recorded using the application was fully comparable with the observations made by specialists during consultations.
The data collected using smartphones was subsequently analyzed using a machine learning algorithm, which was used to generate a mobile scale for assessing the severity of Parkinson's disease (mobile Parkinson disease score, MPDs). This scale contains indicators from 1 to 100, with high indicators corresponding to the most severe symptoms.
In the near future, the authors plan to conduct clinical studies of the new technology and hope that over time it will turn into a new tool that will not only facilitate the development of new drugs, but also increase the effectiveness of disease therapy.
Article by Andong Zhan et al. Using Smartphones and Machine Learning to Quantify Parkinson's Disease Severity is published in the journal JAMA Neurology.
Evgenia Ryabtseva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of the University of Rochester Medical Center: Mobile Apps Could Hold the Key to Parkinson's Research, Care.