TEMPORAL FEATURES ESTIMATED FROM ELETROMYOGRAPHIC AND INERTIAL SIGNALS FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF BRADYKINESIA IN PEOPLE WITH PARKINSON'S DISEASE

Several motor disorders can cause the slowness of voluntary movements, known as bradykinesia. For instance, in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) the evaluation of bradykinesia together with other cardinal signs are of great relevance for the diagnosis and follow-up of the disorder. In this context, the development of methods for the objective assessment of bradykinesia is relevant. This research proposes the use of temporal features extracted from electromyographic and inertial signals for the evaluation of bradykinesia. Data were collected from six people with Parkinson’s disease who executed pronation/supination and flexion/extension of the hand, and pinch movement. The overall mean time of distinct features were estimated for each participant, characterizing, thus, typical values of the features for the studied sample. The participants were ranked according to their mean temporal features, illustrating that this parameter can be used as an objective measure for the evaluation of bradykinesia. In the future, the proposed method should be applied to a larger group of people with Parkinson’s disease and a healthy control group so that it is possible to characterize the temporal features adequately.