Objective: To introduce ‘APPTUG’, a smartphone-based instrumental Timed Up & Go (TUG) test, and to study its ability to discriminate between the stages of Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Background: Recent studies show that smartphones’ integral sensors have sufficient reliability and validity for evaluation of gait and balance kinematics. APPTUG can provide accurate timings and other measures of the components of the TUG and thus can potentially help to recognize and differentiate various neurological conditions.

Methods: Idiopathic PD patients attending the Movement Disorders Institute were classified according to the Hoehn & Yahr (HY) scale to 3 groups according to stages, HY-2, HY-3 and HY-4 and monitored by an APPTUG-installed iPhone attached to their sternum while performing a 3 meter TUG.

Results: Twenty-eight patients, HY-2 (n=10, 50% males, age=66.9 years,), HY-3 (n=10, 50% males, age 72.1 years), HY-4 (n=8, 50% males , age=80.0 years) were evaluated. TUG times (13.5, 21 and 35.2 seconds for HY-2, HY-3 and HY-4, respectively) and mediolateral sway (5.1, 6.7 and 7.2 centimeter, respectively) showed a trend for correlation with HY stages; HY-2 patients showed lower step to step standard variability (0.052 vs. 0.067 and 0.069, respectively, not significant) than the higher HY groups.

Conclusions: This study showed feasibility using APPTUG , a compact, accessible and user-friendly tool for instrumental TUG evaluation. At this point the analysis obtained for this small sample did not support its usability in detecting transition within PD HY stages.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/gait-and-balance-assessment-in-hoehn-and-yahr-stages-of-parkinsons-disease-using-smartphone-based-instrumental-timed-up-and-go/