Effect of Medication and Deep Brain Stimulation on Gait in Parkinson’s Disease and its Quantitative Analysis Using Mobishoe – A Comparative Study

BACKGROUND: Movement abnormalities pertaining to balance, posture, and gait are observed in Parkinson’s disease patients. Gait characteristics vary widely and their analysis has been performed traditionally in gait labs. Freezing and festination usually occur at an advanced stage of the disease and are associated with reduced quality of life. Therapeutic strategies and surgical interventions are often modulated by the physician depending upon the clinical manifestations. Introduction of accelerometers and wireless data transmission systems made quantitative gait analysis possible and cost-effective. OBJECTIVE: To assess spatiotemporal gait parameters (step height, length (spatial), and swing support time of each foot and double support time (temporal)) in subjects who underwent deep brain stimulation surgery using a purpose-built instrument—Mobishoe. METHODS: A simple footwear-based gait sensing device—Mobishoe was built in-house. Thirty-six participants were included in the study after obtaining consent. Participants were made to wear Mobishoe and walk an empty corridor of 30m before Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) in the drug on and off stated and post DBS in DBS stimulation on and medication off state (B1M0), DBS stimulation off—medication off state (B0M0), DBS stimulation off—medication on (B0M1), and DBS stimulation on and on medication (B1M1). Data was electronically captured and analyzed offline in MATrix LABoratory (MATLAB). Various gait parameters were extracted and analyzed. RESULTS: Improvement in gait parameters was observed when the subject was on medication, on stimulation, or on both when compared to baseline. Improvement was similar with both medication and stimulation and was synergistic when both were used. Significant improvement was noted in spatial characteristics when the subjects were on both the treatments, which is the ideal treatment modality. CONCLUSION: Mobishoe is an affordable device which can measure spatiotemporal characteristics of gait. The best improvement was seen when the subjects were on both the treatment groups and the improvement can be justified as a synergistic effect of stimulation and medication.