Automatic movement segmentation in the upper limb functional assessment of children with cerebral palsy

Abstract

Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a group of permanent pre, post and perinatal disorders of the motor and posture development due to non-progressive alterations in brain’s natural development caused by injuries in the Central Nervous System. Due to the importance of the daily use of the upper limb members, it’s important to consider more efficient ways to evaluate the performance in patients diagnosed with CP. One way to obtain an evaluation of the performance of the thoracic member is recording defined movements and calculating the smoothness, using an instrumented sorting block box. Our objective is to create a protocol of valuation for the upper member that is objective, efficient and that gives a quantitative feedback of the grade of the motor affectation of child with PC in a clinical environment.

Upper Limb Movement Measurement Systems for Cerebral Palsy: A Systematic Literature Review

“…The results of Anaya et al [ 61 ] indicated that the smoothness metric is an efficient measure of the upper limb movement that can be used to determine the differences between an affected and an unaffected limb. They are currently investigating the correlation of the results obtained with clinical scales and are developing an objective scale for a functional assessment based on SALM smoothness.…”

“…However, the analysis requires sending patients to a clinical laboratory and is most commonly used to assess kinematics and spatiotemporal variables during activities such as reaching and grasping [ 55 , 56 , 57 , 59 , 62 , 64 , 66 ]. Wearable inertial sensors also directly measure kinematic data of the human body and are an alternative able to be used both in the laboratory and in an open environment [ 61 , 63 , 67 ]. Another less expensive alternative with more advantages is the use of Kinect devices (Microsoft, Redmond, WA, USA) [ 60 , 65 ].…”

“…As Table 3 shows, optoelectronic devices were also used to determine spatiotemporal parameters such as velocity and acceleration during the activities of each assessment [ 57 , 62 , 66 ]. Meanwhile, several authors used inertial sensors to simultaneously obtain the angular velocity and acceleration of their patients [ 61 , 63 ]. Other authors used Vicon devices to determine the smoothness of the movements of the activities performed during the evaluation [ 64 ] and one [ 61 ] used an inertial sensor to measure the smoothness of the motion.…”

“…Meanwhile, several authors used inertial sensors to simultaneously obtain the angular velocity and acceleration of their patients [ 61 , 63 ]. Other authors used Vicon devices to determine the smoothness of the movements of the activities performed during the evaluation [ 64 ] and one [ 61 ] used an inertial sensor to measure the smoothness of the motion. The range of normality of the motion of each sub-movement performed in the test was calculated using the spectral arc length metric (SALM), peak metric (PM), and log dimensionless jerk metric (LDJM).…”