Development of a balance analysis system for early diagnosis of Parkinson's disease

•Hardware module measures force variation and foot-platform supports subject's body.•COP area, the space COP occupying, indicates accuracy of postural control.•Healthy people (n = 88) and PD patients (n = 39) are participated in clinical study.•Significant variables for discriminating Healthy people and PD patients.

The purpose of this research is to develop a postural balance evaluation system using center-of-pressure (COP) analysis techniques for early diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (PD). A COP sensing device was developed, and applicable test protocols were proposed. Subsequently, posturographic parameters, which reflect the characteristics of postural control, were extracted to evaluate postural balance. Decisive indicators for postural stability were selected among the posturographic parameters through statistical validation based on clinical data. A discriminant function was then suggested to predict the existence of PD in patients. This clinical study consisted of 127 participating subjects. A validation study (n = 51, 40% of the overall data) using the discriminant function concluded with 100% accuracy that 37 healthy subjects did not have PD and 14 subjects with PD were correctly diagnosed.Relevance to industryPostural instability has become a critical issue since people with postural balance disorders are frequently exposed to the danger of falling and injuries. This paper provides a device, test protocol, and evaluation method to analyze postural balance and predict the existence of PD. We expect that our proposed system can be exploited for neurosurgery of PD patients, and other clinical medical fields such as rehabilitation, geriatrics, and orthopedics.

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