Digital sensor pen detects Parkinson's disease

29th November 2016

Enaie Azambuja

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Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic, as yet incurable neuro-degenerative disease. Early diagnosis is a matter of increasing urgency, particularly in the ageing European population as prompt detection improves patient outcomes. PD predominantly affects people over the age of 60 with an incidence of 5 out of 1000 people. Early onset of PD is characterised by movement disorders such as tremors, rigidity and slow movement that is later followed by behavioural and cognitive disorders.

Scientists of the EU-funded DIPAR (Diagnosing Parkinson’s disease by neuromuscular function evaluation) project developed a digital sensor pen. This device records biomarkers non-invasively to enable differential diagnosis and monitoring of PD.

Using data from PD patients and healthy individuals, scientists determined baseline values for key motion parameters. They then designed a functional discrimination script to automatically differentiate between healthy and PD patients. Via movement related sensors, the pen records minute motions of the hand and quantifies fine motor skill based on motion features. This data can be utilised by the clinician for PD diagnosis.

The outcomes of the clinical exploratory trials held during this project have demonstrated the utility of the pen technology and software. Clinicians were able to accurately detect PD patients from patients with other motor disorders 80% of the time. The pen had an accuracy of 90% when distinguishing PD patients from healthy elderly individuals.

Besides being non-invasive, the DIPAR pre-production prototype is user-friendly and doesn't require highly specialised neurologists for patient assessment. This is a boon for the already overburdened European healthcare system as it will enable faster PD diagnosis and patient monitoring. Other applications could include rehabilitation and virtual reality training.

The DIPAR consortium consists of five European small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and four research and technological development institutes. Prior to commercialisation, they will develop their final prototype for testing against the benchmark DaTScan imaging technology. Faster commercialisation will boost quality of life for PD patients while enhancing the competitiveness of participating SMEs.