Analysis of gait and balance through a single triaxial accelerometer in presymptomatic and symptomatic Huntington's disease

PurposeTo investigate the capacity of a single triaxial accelerometer sensor in detecting gait and balance impairments in pre-manifest and manifest Huntington's disease (HD) subjects.MethodsFourteen manifest HD (MHD) (age: 51.83 ± 14.8), ten pre-manifest HD (PHD) (age: 44.8 ± 11.7) and ten healthy subjects (HLY) (age: 56.4 ± 10.9) were recruited. The sensor was attached to the upper sternum as subjects completed gait and Romberg balance tests. An inverted pendulum model of the body's centre of mass and an unbiased autocorrelation procedure were employed to derive gait parameters from the triaxial accelerometer signal. The accuracy of the gait measurements was compared to those recorded by a computerized walkway.ResultsStrong agreement was seen between the sensor and the walkway; cadence (ICC = 0.95, CI = [0.75, 0.97]), velocity (ICC = 0.94, CI = [0.75, 0.97]) and step length (ICC = 0.89, CI = [0.77, 0.95]). Sensor derived velocity was significantly higher in HLY (p < 0.001) and PHD (p < 0.005) when compared to MHD. Step and stride length was significantly longer in HLY (p < 0.05) and PHD (p < 0.001) when compared to MHD. Significant differences between subject groups across all four balance tasks (p < 0.001) were found.ConclusionAn accelerometer based sensor may be an effective means of differentiating between pre-manifest and manifest Huntington's disease subjects.

► The objective was to investigate the capacity of a single triaxial accelerometer in monitoring gait and balance in Huntington's disease subjects
► A range of spatio-temporal gait parameters were derived from a sample of 14 manifest HD, 10 pre-manifest HD and ten healthy subjects with the sensor attached to the chest.
► The sensor was capable of distinguishing between subject groups and achieved high sensitivity and specificity for several parameters.