Evaluation of functional movement parameters of Parkinson`s patients during ON and OFF states of dopaminergic medication

Parkinson`s Disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease affecting sensory-motor systems and decreasing patients` quality of life. This study aims to find a sophisticated method for detecting characteristics of patients and comparing gait, balance and tremors between the ON and OFF periods. The data provided by the Xsens (Movella) company belongs to 3 anonymous patients, and the content is unique for all 3 patients since they were unable to perform the same movement patterns due to different disease severity. Their descriptive information was not provided due to patient privacy. Tremor, gait and balance assessments were asked to be performed via preferred approaches and methods by using MVN Analyze Software. Kinematic improvements were detected in gait parameters such as cadence (step/min), the number of steps, speed (m/s), total distance (m), stride and length. The provided data shows that patients have some difficulties during turns and initiation of gait (freezing gait). It accompanies a delay in the first step at the beginning of the gait and after turns as well. For the tremor assessment, a heat map was generated based on the magnitude and frequency of the tremors. Both the magnitude and frequency of the tremors were smaller under the dopaminergic medication (ON: amplitude:4.99 cm frequency:4.04 Hz; OFF: amplitude:7.78 cm frequency:5.17 Hz). We were unable to assess the balance due to time limitations. Most of the parameters show an improvement in gait and tremors during the ON period. Results are important in terms of individualization of drug intake time and dosage.