Could Your Smartwatch Help Detect Parkinson's Disease Earlier?
A fact confirmed by Nick Blackmer
A new study has shown that smartwatches can provide valuable information about the symptoms of Parkinson's disease.
In fact, smart watches can track how fast a person moves; slow movement is often an early sign of Parkinson's disease.
Experts say that the earlier a person is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, the more time is needed to develop a treatment plan and determine the way forward.
Your smartwatch may help detect symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD), a new study suggests.
Parkinson's disease is a mental disorder that causes awkward and uncontrollable movements, such as tremors or balance disorders. Symptoms usually get worse over time, but each case is very unique.
While there is no substitute for traditional clinical appointments and screening tests to diagnose disease, it can be helpful to have tools that complement the understanding of changes in a person's behavior and functioning that will hopefully lead to early diagnosis and early intervention for improvement. quality of life. .
New research focuses on the use of smartwatches as this complementary tool.
The study, published in Nature Medicine, used artificial intelligence to analyze data from 103,712 people who wore smartwatches that recorded their movement speed over a week between 2013 and 2016.
Lead study author Cynthia Sandor, PhD, new head of Cardiff University's Dementia Research Institute, told Health that she and her team had hoped to find "rhythmic movement changes" in people before they were diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. They did not expect this. Decreased movement speed in people with Parkinson's disease.
Smartwatch data can provide insight into how people's activities change over time, and this can indicate significant changes in their overall health.
"We were even more surprised to see how well the model trained on smartwatch data performed in the general population, including people with other diseases," Sandor said.
Learn about Parkinson's disease
The prevalence of Parkinson's disease has doubled over the past quarter century, with an estimated 8.5 million people worldwide living with the disease in 2019.
In the United States, this disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's disease.
Dr. Benjamin Walter, a neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic Neurorehabilitation Center, tells Health that Parkinson's disease is usually diagnosed through a review of a person's clinical history and an examination by a disorder specialist. Walter, who was not associated with the UK study, added that diagnosis does not usually depend on blood or laboratory tests.
In rare cases, imaging known as Datiscan can be used to examine the brain's dopamine system, as loss of dopamine can lead to Parkinson's disease.
Walter explains that the traditional clinical examination is the most proven method of diagnosis by professionals with experience in this field.
"Parkinson's disease is primarily diagnosed based on the clinical features of slowness, rigidity, tremors, gait and balance disturbances," said Caroline M. Tanner, PhD, Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Clinical Research. Neuroscience at the Weill Institute for Neuroscience at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
"Diagnosis may not be accurate, especially at the beginning of the disease," he said. "Imaging studies, including dopamine transporter imaging and MRI, are often used as supportive information."
Tanner, who was not involved in the new study, echoed Walter, saying that sophisticated new screening methods have emerged that are not standard. He proposes biomarker testing for protein abnormalities that are “pathological markers of PD” to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2022.
He explained that any time a test or diagnosis can detect Parkinson's disease in the early stages, it can make a big difference in a patient's life.
"Ideally, we want to identify people with these very early changes, even before motor changes appear, because we hope to be able to intervene to delay or prevent the onset of PD," he said.
Related: Signs and symptoms of Parkinson's disease
How movement speed predicts Parkinson's disease
According to Sandor, previous studies have shown that the clinical diagnosis of Parkinson's disease is "well before the prodromal stage." Subtle motor changes may occur, with bradykinesia or slow movement being among the first.
"Our research shows that smartwatches can measure activities that fall below this threshold without the need for a clinic visit or expensive equipment," Sandor said.
Tanner said the new study used machine learning algorithms to analyze the data, so "real clinical application will take a lot of work."
Walter says data like this is important because people wearing smartwatches are becoming their own "control group." Basically, you can compare how the smartwatch data changes over time based on how fast or slow the person is moving.
"You see a lot of variability in how people move, and over time you notice a number of important trends that become more visible and easier to observe; can you separate it?
How smartwatch technology can help Parkinson's disease patients
If his team's findings are replicated and confirmed by further research, Sandor said: "Diagnosis of Parkinson's disease in the general population may be facilitated by data from smartwatches."
He emphasized that while his team's research is useful, it is currently only diagnostic and not a diagnostic tool.
"Thus, our device serves as an early identification of individuals at risk for further screening," he said.
Sandor explained that by accurately measuring motor signals, smartwatch data can be a simple and useful tool for diagnosing Parkinson's disease.
Tanner agrees that smartwatch data can certainly help with validation, suggesting that someone who shows signs of changes in their functioning may need further evaluation.
Walter added that there are other changes in people's behavior that can indicate the development of Parkinson's disease beyond their movement.
For example, many people with this disease experience loss of smell, constipation, and sleep disturbances.
Walter explains that wearable technology can be used to record changes in sleep patterns, and the data can be combined with walking data from a smart watch to give a more complete picture of a person's physical changes.
Smart watch technology is not a diagnostic tool, but simply provides information that complements the detailed view page, eco Tanner and Sandor.
Early detection of Parkinson's disease
Hopefully, more information like smartwatches will lead to early detection of Parkinson's disease and interventions that will give people a better quality of life.
"Early diagnosis allows for early intervention," says Tanner. "We currently have no treatment to stop or slow its progression or cure the disease, but it is an active area of research."
Sandor added that today's early diagnosis will help individuals, caregivers and families better "plan and prepare for the future."
"We hope that early diagnosis will help recruit the right people to neuroprotective treatments that are more beneficial than drugs that protect the right neurons," he said.
Sandor said the next goal is to replicate the research findings in an independent group of people and test how practical this type of smartwatch data is for measuring changes in activity.
"Obtaining a complete diagnostic history from people newly diagnosed with Parkinson's disease provides very informative data and will be of great help to the Parkinson's research community in studying the pre-drama stage of the disease.
Related: How to prevent Parkinson's disease
For more health news, don't hesitate to subscribe to our newsletter.
Read the original health article.
