iHandU is a wireless glove that evaluates wrist rigidity, ready to be used in the surgical room. This wearable device was developed to aid electro implantation decision-making during Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery, which is performed in Parkinson Disease (PD) patients when drugs lose their efficacy or symptoms become more severe. The solution developed at INESC TEC aims at providing accurate measures on wrist rigidity and motion through a comfortable and practical wearable device with multiple applications in healthcare and human-machine interface.
- Challenge | Opportunity
Since increased muscle rigidity is one of the most relevant symptoms in PD, wrist rigidity assessment is used to determine the optimal position for implanting the DBS electrode. Nevertheless, wrist rigidity is currently measured by a trained neurologist and scored using a semi-quantitative scale. Such evaluation is often biased by the experience, perception and subjective scale defined by each physician, hence the need for an objective and quantitative evaluation methodology.
Current technologies require complex acquisition setups, making them unpractical for intraoperative DBS procedures. In this sense, iHandU was developed to be a practical, simple and precise system to evaluate wrist rigidity under specific stimulation parameters during DBS surgery.
• Maximizes the clinical outcomes of DBS surgery;
• Reduces hospital costs by decreasing the operative time and associated risk of side-effects;
• Eases the assessment of both pharmacological and surgical treatment efficacies;
• User-friendly, affordable and accurate solution ready for intraoperative use.
• Major limitations were found on the evaluation of signals corresponding to intermediate rigidity
• Not ready for tremor detection and characterization or levodopa tests
• Clinical assessment of movement disorders including neurological (i.e., Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy) and musculoskeletal diseases (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis)
• Support movement rehabilitation, namely on an outpatient basis
• Gesture control devices
• Sports biomechanics
• Occupational safety and health
