Article

Although nocturnal hypokinesia represents one of the most common nocturnal
disabilities in Parkinson disease (PD), it is often a neglected problem in daily
clinical practice. We have developed a portable ambulatory motion recorder (the
NIGHT-Recorder), which consists of 16-bit triaxial integrated
microelectromechanical system inertial sensors that are specifically designed to
measure movements, register the position of the body with respect to gravity, and
provide information on rotations on the longitudinal axis while lying in bed. The
signal processing uses the forward derivative method to identify rolling over and
getting out of bed as primary indicators. The prototype was tested on six PD
pairs to measure their movements for one night. Using predetermined definitions,
134 movements were captured consisting of rolling over 115 times and getting out
of bed 19 times. Patients with PD rolled over significantly fewer times than
their spouses (p = 0.03), and the position change was significantly smaller in
patients with PD (p = 0.03). Patients with PD rolled over at a significantly
slower speed (p = 0.03) and acceleration (p = 0.03) than their spouses. In
contrast, patients with PD got out of bed significantly more often than their
spouses (p = 0.02). It is technically feasible to develop an easy-to-use,
portable, and accurate device that can assist physicians in the assessment of
nocturnal movements of patients with PD.

Langue : ANGLAIS