부산대학교 도서관

Background The natural fluctuation of motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease ( PD) makes judgement of any change challenging and the use of clinical scales such as the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society ( MDS)- UPDRS imperative. Recently developed commodity mobile communication devices, such as smartphones, could possibly be used to assess motor symptoms in PD patients in a convenient way with low cost. We provide the first report on the development and testing of stand-alone software for mobile devices that could be used to assess both tremor and bradykinesia of PD patients. Methods We assessed motor symptoms with a custom-made smartphone application in 14 patients and compared the results with their MDS- UPDRS scores. Results We found significant correlation between five subscores of MDS- UPDRS (rest tremor, postural tremor, pronation-supination, leg agility, and finger tapping) and eight parameters of the data collected with the smartphone. Conclusions These results provide evidence as a proof of principle that smartphones could be a useful tool to objectively assess motor symptoms in PD in clinical and experimental settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]