The goal of this project is to create a miniature, solid-state device that can monitor, on a continuous, long-term basis, the motor activity of Parkinson's disease. The monitoring of motor activity continuously for 6 days will provide information regarding the patient's activity levels; the duration and effectiveness of various treatment regimens; the frequency, duration, and time of occurrence of on/off episodes; and the sleep patterns and awakenings. The recording will be correlated with the patient's diary. It is planned to develop the criteria for a solidstate device and assemble a prototype and test it for clinical usefulness. To achieve these aims, reference methods in clinical use and multichannel, ambulatory cassette tape recorders (Holter type) will be equipped with high-fidelity triaxial accelerometer to establish a standard. The data will be analyzed with a FFT program and displayed and compared with data obtained from a wrist actigraph. The actigraph will be optimized with a transducer and filter selection to meet the clinical criteria. Patients and normal, matched controls will be recorded and studied. In Phase II, a number of motor activity actigraphs will be produced and tested on a large patient population, and the software will be developed for a clinical report summarizing the data collected.Awardee's statement of the potential commercial applications of the research:Continuous physiological monitoring of motor activity can provide significant information regarding the severity of tremor, effectiveness of medication, and compliance with treatment. Patients will benefit from objective data in the management of their therapy. Neurology clinics will be able to improve management of visits and hospital admissions. Equipment and software are reusable and cost effective.National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
