Objective: The aim of this work is to evaluate clinimetric properties of a method for measuring Parkinson’s disease (PD) upper limb temporal irregularities during spiral drawing tasks.

Background: Basal ganglia fluctuations of PD patients are associated with motor symptoms and relating them to objective sensor-based measures may facilitate the assessment of temporal irregularities, which could be difficult to be assessed visually. The present study investigated the upper limb temporal irregularity of patients at different stages of PD and medication time points.

Methods: 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 the videos of patients’ performance according to six items of UPDRS-III, dyskinesia (Dys), and Treatment Response Scale (TRS). A temporal irregularity score (TIS) was developed using approximate entropy (ApEn) method. Differences in mean TIS between two groups of patients and healthy subjects, and also across four subject groups: early, intermediate, advanced patients and, healthy subjects were assessed. The relative ability of TIS to detect changes from baseline (no medication) to later time points when patients were on medication was assessed. Correlations between TIS and clinical rating scales were assessed by Pearson correlation coefficients and test-retest reliability of TIS was measured by intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC).

Results: The mean TIS was significantly different between healthy subjects and patients (P<0.0001). When assessing the changes in relation to treatment, clinical-based scores (TRS and Dys) had better responsiveness than TIS. However, the TIS was able to capture changes from Off to On, and the wearing off effects. Correlations between TIS and clinical scales were low indicating poor validity. Test-retest reliability correlation coefficient of the mean TIS was good (ICC=0.67).

Conclusions: Our study found that TIS was able to differentiate spiral drawings drawn by patients from those drawn by healthy subjects. In addition, TIS could capture changes throughout the levodopa cycle.TIS was weakly correlated to clinical ratings indicating that TIS measures high frequency upper limb temporal irregularities that could be difficult to be detected during clinical observations.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/measuring-temporal-irregularity-in-spiral-drawings-of-patients-with-parkinsons-disease/