title: A practical method for the detection of freezing of gait in patients with Parkinson's disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Freezing of gait (FOG), increasing the fall risk and limiting the quality of life, is common at the advanced stage of Parkinson's disease, typically in old ages. A simple and unobtrusive FOG detection system with a small calculation load would make a fast presentation of on-demand cueing possible. The purpose of this study was to find a practical FOG detection system.
  
  
  METHODS
  A sole-mounted sensor system was developed for an unobtrusive measurement of acceleration during gait. Twenty patients with Parkinson's disease participated in this study. A simple and fast time-domain method for the FOG detection was suggested and compared with the conventional frequency-domain method. The parameters used in the FOG detection were optimized for each patient.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The calculation load was 1,154 times less in the time-domain method than the conventional method, and the FOG detection performance was comparable between the two domains (P=0.79) and depended on the window length (P<0.01) and dimension of sensor information (P=0.03).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A minimally constraining sole-mounted sensor system was developed, and the suggested time-domain method showed comparable FOG detection performance to that of the conventional frequency-domain method. Three-dimensional sensor information and 3-4-second window length were desirable. The suggested system is expected to have more practical clinical applications.
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering, Konkuk University, Chungju, Korea.
authors.forename: Yuri
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kwon
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering, Konkuk University, Chungju, Korea.
authors.forename: Sang Hoon
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering, Konkuk University, Chungju, Korea.
authors.forename: Ji-Won
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering, Konkuk University, Chungju, Korea.
authors.forename: Yeji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering, Konkuk University, Chungju, Korea.
authors.forename: Hyeong-Min
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Jeon
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering, Konkuk University, Chungju, Korea.
authors.forename: Min-Jung
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Bang
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering, Konkuk University, Chungju, Korea.
authors.forename: Gu-In
authors.initials: GI
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Seon-Min
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering, Konkuk University, Chungju, Korea ; Research Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Konkuk University, Chungju, Korea.
authors.forename: Gwang-Moon
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Eom
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Seong-Beom
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Koh
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering, Konkuk University, Chungju, Korea ; Research Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Konkuk University, Chungju, Korea.
authors.forename: Jeong-Whan
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Engineering, Konkuk University, Chungju, Korea.
authors.forename: Heung Seok
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Jeon
mesh_terms: D000054:Acceleration; D061725:Accelerometry / Q000295:instrumentation; D000058:Accidental Falls; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D020235:Gait Apraxia / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation; D016474:Weight-Bearing
keywords: Parkinson’s disease; acceleration; detection system; freezing of gait; frequency-domain; time-domain