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A New Way to Monitor Parkinson’s |
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When someone has Parkinson’s disease, the progression of the disease needs to be frequently monitored. This usually involves numerous visits to the hospital to be examined by medical experts |
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| Author: A Newman |
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Now researchers at the University of Oxford, U.K., have found a possible solution to this stressful situation: simply analyze the speech patterns of Parkinson’s patients to determine the severity of the symptoms of the disease.
A research team made up of British and U.S. scientists analyzed almost 6,000 speech recordings from 42 people with Parkinson’s and developed algorithms using the data to estimate how bad the symptoms were.
Parkinson’s is a disease affecting the nervous system. No one has so far found out exactly what causes the onset of the disease.
In primary Parkinson’s, the brain loses the ability to manufacture three chemicals. These three chemicals are important in maintaining the health of the nervous system. Common symptoms of Parkinson’s include tremors, a slow and heavy gait, and muscular stiffness.
For the U.K. study, researchers dispensed with the standard method of assessing symptom severity using the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). UPDRS requires a doctor or specialist to make a clinical evaluation of the patient’s ability to cope with a range of tasks. Instead, the researchers used simple, self-administered speech tests that didn’t require the patient’s physical presence in a clinic.
By applying a wide range of known speech signal processing algorithms to a large database (approximately 6,000 recordings from 42 Parkinson’s patients, recruited to a six-month, multi-center trial), the research team was able to locate algorithms that seem to reveal symptoms in Parkinson’s disease more accurately than conventional approaches.
The researchers compared estimates made using the new technique with assessments made by doctors. They found that, based on around 140 speech samples from each of the 42 patients, the estimates made using the algorithms differed from doctors’ UPDRS ratings by around two points.
The researchers say that the study provided good evidence that speech impairment and the average overall severity of other Parkinson’s disease symptoms are very closely linked. This means that symptom severity should be able to be accurately measured just by analyzing speech.
Remote monitoring, or “telemonitoring” could be particularly important for people with Parkinson’s who may find it difficult and stressful to make frequent hospital visits.
About Author
Dr. Victor Marchione received his Bachelor of Science Degree in 1973 and his Medical Degree from the University of Messina in 1981. He has been licensed and practicing medicine in New York and New Jersey for over 20 years. Dr. Marchione is a respected leader in the field of smoking cessation and pulmonary medicine. He has been featured on ABC News and World Report, CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and the NBC Today Show and is the editor of the popular The Food Doctor newsletter. Dr. Marchione has also served as Principal Investigator in at least a dozen clinical research projects relating to serious ailments such as bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). To read more from Doctors Health Press, click here: http://www.doctorshealthpress.com/ads/dhpart/
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