Quantitative Evaluation of Movement Disorders by Specified Analysis According to Actigraphy Records

Aim: To evaluate whether the specified analytical objective scale represents disease severity for neurological movement disorders according to the physical activity of the patients. Methods: Eighty-one patients with Parkinsonʹs disease (PD) and sixty-one patients with acute cerebral infarction (ACI) combined with upper limb motor function disorder at the Shuguang hospital, affiliated with the Shanghai TCM university. PD patients and ACI patients were treated according to the international medication guiding principle for PD or ACI respectively. We analysed the power-law exponent (PLE) and the detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) of the actigraphy records, which were taken on 2 occasions (before drug administration for two groups, 24-38 days for PD patients and 28 days for ACI patients). Efficacy was evaluated by the Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) for PD and by Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA) and the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) for ACI patients. We also evaluated the correlation between any changed rates of UPDRS scores and PLE for PD patients, and FMA and FIM scores and DFA for ACI patients. Results: The UPDRS scores and PLE values for PD, and the FMA and FIM scores with the DFA score for ACI were improved after the drug administration; they yielded a linear correlation coefficient of 0.699 and 0.823 between the improvement rates of the total UPDRS scores and the PLE values, and between the UPDRS Part III score and the PLE values, while it yielded a linear correlation coefficient of 0.638 and 0.712 between the improvement rates of the FMA scores and the DFA, and the FIM scores and the DFA respectively. There was no correlation between the UPDRS scores and the DFA values for the PD patients or between the FIM score or the FMA score and the PLE values for ACI patients. Conclusion: Actigraphy records and the analysis of its PLE or DFA might provide useful objective and specific information for controlling PD or ACI patients and for monitoring drug administration respectively.