Wearable gait monitoring for diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases

Wearable gait monitoring is of significance to improve the quality of clinical diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases. However, the symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases are always diverse for different subjects. To address this issue, wireless gait monitoring system detecting plantar bend and impact force is proposed. PVDF sensors are arranged as the sensing part. Signal conditioning circuit, WiFi transmission module, and feature signal processing unit are also integrally designed. The proposed system is utilized to 6 healthy adults for normal single walking and cognitive activity interfered walking respectively. Experimental results show that walking interfered by cognitive activities has a smaller plantar bend while larger stride intervals and asymmetry index than normal single walking. Furthermore, the designed system is validated by patients affected with Parkinson's disease. Results indicate that the proposed method can be implemented as a medical decision support system for diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases in daily life.