A Movement Monitor Based on Magneto-Inertial Sensors for Non-Ambulant Patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: A Pilot Study in Controlled Environment

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 11; no. 6; p. e0156696
• Main Authors: Le Moing, Anne-Gaëlle, Seferian, Andreea Mihaela, Moraux, Amélie, Annoussamy, Mélanie, Dorveaux, Eric, Gasnier, Erwan, Hogrel, Jean-Yves, Voit, Thomas, Vissière, David, Servais, Laurent
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 07.06.2016; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Activities of Daily Living; Adolescent; Adult; Analysis; Angular velocity; Biology and Life Sciences; Care and treatment; Child; Clinical trials; Computation; Correlation; Correlation analysis; Duchenne muscular dystrophy; Duchenne's muscular dystrophy; Dystrophy; Elevation; Environment, Controlled; Equipment Design; Gene therapy; Home environment; Humans; Inertial sensing devices; Life Sciences; Male; Medical research; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mental disorders; Mimicry; Minnesota; Monitoring, Physiologic - instrumentation; Muscle Strength; Muscular dystrophy; Muscular Dystrophy, Duchenne - physiopathology; Muscular strength; Neuromuscular diseases; Patients; Physical activity; Physical Sciences; Pilot Projects; Quality of life; Regulatory approval; Reproducibility of Results; Risk factors; Sensors; Signal to noise ratio; Software; Task Performance and Analysis; Upper Extremity - physiopathology; Young Adult; Minnesota; France
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0156696

Measurement of muscle strength and activity of upper limbs of non-ambulant patients with neuromuscular diseases is a major challenge. ActiMyo® is an innovative device that uses magneto-inertial sensors to record angular velocities and linear accelerations that can be used over long periods of time in the home environment. The device was designed to insure long-term stability and good signal to noise ratio, even for very weak movements. In order to determine relevant and pertinent clinical variables with potential for use as outcome measures in clinical trials or to guide therapy decisions, we performed a pilot study in non-ambulant neuromuscular patients. We report here data from seven Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) patients (mean age 18.5 ± 5.5 years) collected in a clinical setting. Patients were assessed while wearing the device during performance of validated tasks (MoviPlate, Box and Block test and Minnesota test) and tasks mimicking daily living. The ActiMyo® sensors were placed on the wrists during all the tests. Software designed for use with the device computed several variables to qualify and quantify muscular activity in the non-ambulant subjects. Four variables representative of upper limb activity were studied: the rotation rate, the ratio of the vertical component in the overall acceleration, the hand elevation rate, and an estimate of the power of the upper limb. The correlations between clinical data and physical activity and the ActiMyo® movement parameters were analyzed. The mean of the rotation rate and mean of the elevation rate appeared promising since these variables had the best reliability scores and correlations with task scores. Parameters could be computed even in a patient with a Brooke functional score of 6. The variables chosen are good candidates as potential outcome measures in non-ambulant patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and use of the ActiMyo® is currently being explored in home environment. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01611597.