Evaluation of Graphic Gesture in Parkinson’s Disease (original) (raw)

Spatial features of angular drawing movements in Parkinson’s disease patients

Acta Psychologica, 1998

The present study shows that drawings from ParkinsonÕs disease (PD) patients display speci®c spatial features when compared to those produced by age-matched controls. Their drawings are globally smaller, or more precisely, the larger the requested size, the greater the size reduction. PD subjects have also more diculties in producing obtuse than acute angles: angles of obtuse patterns are shrinking and their segment lengths are shortened. This could be due to the fact that an obtuse angle brings the eector joints close to the limits of their functional ranges of motion, which may be reduced in PD patients. Results related to segment direction show that PD patients are globally more imprecise than controls in the production of movement directions, but perform nevertheless relatively well for horizontals and verticals drawn in preferred directions. These results are referred to two contradictory models relating movement direction to the type of movement coordination involved. Ó 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

A new approach for the quantitative evaluation of the clock drawing test: preliminary results on subjects with Parkinson's disease

Neurology research international, 2010

Aims. The realization of an experimental set-up for the quantitative and objective description of drawing using optoelectronic systems, which could be used when a quantification of the realization of specific drawing tests is required. Methods. Healthy subjects, subjects with Parkinson's Disease and subjects with Parkinson's Disease and Dementia were evaluated by the Mini Mental Scale Evaluation and by a new approach to the Clock Drawing Test, based on an optoelectronic acquisition. The new protocol hereby described aims to define a parameter related to the movement kinematics in the Clock Drawing test execution. Results. The experimental set-up revealed to be valid introducing new objective measurements beside the subjective Clock Drawing Test. This paper suggests the applicability of this protocol to other fields of motor and cognitive valuation, as well as the introduction of new parameters related to the graphic movement.

Distinctive Handwriting Signs in Early Parkinson’s Disease

Applied Sciences

Background: The analysis of handwriting movements to quantify motor and cognitive impairments in neurodegenerative diseases is increasingly attracting interest. Non-invasive and quick-to-administer tools using handwriting movement analysis can be used in early screening of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and maybe in the diagnosis of other neurodegenerative disease. Theaim of this work is to identify the distinctive signs characterizing handwriting in the early stage of PD, in order to provide a diagnostic tool for the early detection of the disease. Compared to previous studies, here, we analyzed handwriting movements of patients on which the disease affects the contralateral side with respect to the one used for writing. Methods: We collected and analyzed a set of handwriting samples by PD patients and healthy subjects. Participants were asked to follow a novel protocol, containing handwriting patterns of various levels of complexity, using both familiar and unfamiliar movements. Results...

Handwriting with different effectors in individuals with Parkinson's disease

Parkinsonism & Related Disorders, 2020

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Verification of a Method for Measuring Parkinson’s Disease Related Temporal Irregularity in Spiral Drawings

Sensors

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive movement disorder caused by the death of dopamine-producing cells in the midbrain. There is a need for frequent symptom assessment, since the treatment needs to be individualized as the disease progresses. The aim of this paper was to verify and further investigate the clinimetric properties of an entropy-based method for measuring PD-related upper limb temporal irregularities during spiral drawing tasks. More specifically, properties of a temporal irregularity score (TIS) for patients at different stages of PD, and medication time points were investigated. Nineteen PD patients and 22 healthy controls performed repeated spiral drawing tasks on a smartphone. Patients performed the tests before a single levodopa dose and at specific time intervals after the dose was given. Three movement disorder specialists rated videos of the patients based on the unified PD rating scale (UPDRS) and the Dyskinesia scale. Differences in mean TIS between the groups of patients and healthy subjects were assessed. Test-retest reliability of the TIS was measured. The ability of TIS to detect changes from baseline (before medication) to later time points was investigated. Correlations between TIS and clinical rating scores were assessed. The mean TIS was significantly different between healthy subjects and patients in advanced groups (p-value = 0.02). Test-retest reliability of TIS was good with Intra-class Correlation Coefficient of 0.81. When assessing changes in relation to treatment, TIS contained some information to capture changes from Off to On and wearing off effects. However, the correlations between TIS and clinical scores (UPDRS and Dyskinesia) were weak. TIS was able to differentiate spiral drawings drawn by patients in an advanced stage from those drawn by healthy subjects, and TIS had good test-retest reliability. TIS was somewhat responsive to single-dose levodopa treatment. Since TIS is an upper limb high-frequency-based measure, it cannot be detected during clinical assessment.

The relation of hand and arm configuration variances while tracking geometric figures in Parkinson's disease: aspects for rehabilitation

International Journal of Rehabilitation Research, 2009

Variances of drawing arm movements between patients with Parkinson's disease and healthy controls were compared. The aim was to determine whether differences in joint synergies or individual joint rotations affect the endpoint (hand position) variance. Joint and endpoint coordinates were measured while participants performed drawing tasks. Variances of arm configurations and endpoints were computed and statistically analyzed for 12 patients and 12 controls. The variance of arm movements for patients (both for arm configuration and endpoint) was overall higher than that for the control group. Variation was smaller for drawing a circle versus a square and for drawing with the dominant versus the nondominant hand within both groups. The ratio of arm configuration variances between groups was similar to the ratio of endpoint variances. There were significant differences in the velocity, but not in the path lengths of movements comparing the two groups. Patients presented less movement stability while drawing different figures in different trials. Moreover, the similarity of the ratios suggests that the ill-coordinated hand movement was caused by the error in the movements of individual body parts rather than by the lack of intersegmental coordination. Thus, rehabilitation may focus on the improvement of the precision of individual joint rotations.

Spiral analysis in subjects with Parkinson's disease before and after levodopa treatment: a new protocol with stereophotogrammetric systems

Journal of applied biomaterials & functional materials, 2014

a method for the quantification of handwritten spirals in patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD) pre and post levodopa treatment is reported. Fifteen PD patients (mean age: 66.80±9.75 years) were assessed in the absence of medication (OFF condition) and under levodopa administration (ON condition). The control group was composed of 15 age-matched healthy (H) individuals (mean age: 63.70±9.40). They were asked to hand draw a spiral at self-selected speed, without resting their forearm on the table. The participants drew on a paper sheet, using a normal pen. The trace of the pen was determined from the 3D coordinates of passive markers placed on the pen and on the sheet, acquired with an optoelectronic system and some parameters were identified and computed. the method revealed to be significant in highlighting the differences between H and PD subjects and in detecting pharmacologic effect. PD patients are impaired in spiral drawing execution and levodopa improves drawing performa...

Discrete and dynamic scaling of the size of continuous graphic movements of parkinsonian patients and elderly controls

Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 2003

Objectives: To systematically investigate the ability of Parkinson's disease patients to discretely and dynamically scale the size of continuous movements and to assess the impact of movement size on outcome variability. Methods: Ten patients with Parkinson's disease (mean age 72 years) were compared with 12 healthy elderly controls (mean age 70 years). The subjects wrote with a stylus on a graphics tablet. In experiment 1 they drew circles, matching the size of five target circles ranging in magnitude from a radius of 0.5 cm up to 2.5 cm. In experiment 2 they drew spirals with a radius of at least 2 cm. In both experiments the drawings were initially performed as accurately as possible then as fast and accurately as possible.