Application of imaging techniques to objectify the Finger Tapping test used in the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease

Abstract

Finger tapping is one of the standard tests for Parkinson's disease diagnosis performed to assess the motor function of patients' upper limbs. In clinical practice, the assessment of the patient's ability to perform the test is carried out visually and largely depends on the experience of clinicians. This article presents the results of research devoted to the objectification of this test. The methodology was based on the proposed measurement method consisting in frame processing of the video stream recorded during the test to determine the time series representing the distance between the index finger and the thumb. Analysis of the resulting signals was carried out in order to determine the characteristic features that were then used in the process of distinguishing patients with Parkinson's disease from healthy cases using methods of machine learning. The research was conducted with the participation of 21 patients with Parkinson's disease and 21 healthy subjects. The results indicate that it is possible to obtain the sensitivity and specificity of the proposed method at the level of approx. 80 %. However, the patients were in the so-called ON phase when symptoms are reduced due to medication, which was a much greater challenge compared to analyzing signals with clearly visible symptoms as reported in related works.