Design, construction and evaluation of peripheral stimulation devices in the lower extremities, to help patients with Parkinson's patients with gait freezing

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative progressive disorder, whose main impact is the loss of motor skills including tremors, rigidity, postural instability and Freezing Of Gait (FOG for its acronym in English). FOG events begin suddenly and consist of a partial or total block walking for short periods of time, occurring when the patient goes through narrow places or obstacles affecting the gait and even causing falls and fractures. This paper describes the design, implementation and evaluation of an electronic device for peripheral stimulation that through vibratory stimuli during walking, helps these patients to significantly reduce episodes of FOG, also improving the cadence. Additionally the system records parameters such as acceleration in the horizontal and vertical axes, and pressure distribution in four specific points on the soles of the feet for further analysis of the physiology of gait.This device was tested in seven PD patients, two of whom had episodes of FOG; and where the analysis of time series and frequency of data collection system was shown to be an effective therapy for the freezing of gait, reducing up to 75% FOG episodes and significantly improving the homogeneity of the gait.