What to measure next?

[johntPM]

What simple measure do you find that gives the most accurate impression of the state of your Parkinson's?

I spend a lot of time building tools to measure my PD symptoms, and I'm looking for ideas about what to measure next.

So far, I've developed a side-to-side tap test tool, which can be run on-line at:

parkinsonsmeasurement.org/t...

If you want to track your results over time and compare them with other people's scores, you can register with PDMeasure at:

parkinsonsmeasurement.org/P...

More recently, I've moved on to building tools using an Arduino microcontroller, basically a computer for £5. Combining this with an accelerometer and a micro-SD card allows me to track my movements every 0.1 sec. Although there is a lot of "noise", you can see the changes over the course of a drug cycle: as the drug "takes" my movements increase, after about a hour they plateau, where they remain for about two hours before declining back to where they started.

I would like to hear from anyone else looking at ways to measure Parkinson's or with ideas about what should be measured.

John

[oceanflower]

I did your tap test but don't know how to interpret the results. One hand is much slower than the other...slow hand scored 32. What does it mean?

[johntPM in reply to oceanflower]

oceanflower,

A score of 32 is very good, especially for a slow hand and for a first attempt.

There is a learning effect with this test, over the first 10 or so goes the score tends to increase.

If you go to the PDMeasure link, you can see the scores of other people.

As to what the score means, PwP tend to get lower scores, which vary during the day more, than non-PwP.

I have written a number of reports on the use of the data on the Neurotalk, Parkinson's forum.

John

[karlschmo]

Since my PD is tremor dominant, I use the TremorCheck app on my iPhone. It measures the peak frequency, amplitude, power, and synchronization and plots changes over time. I try to measure my tremor under the same conditions at the same time each day. Would love to find more tools, I'll check out your tap test tool.

[racerCP in reply to karlschmo]

Is it downloaded on Play Store? What is it called?

[karlschmo in reply to racerCP]

You can download it for iPhone from the App Store. Not sure if it's available for Android.

It's called, TremorCheck.

[racerCP in reply to karlschmo]

Thank you.

[Beckey]

Fascinating! I wish I could contribute something of value, but you're way ahead of me in the genius department.

[Angelo65]

Hi john, interesting what your doing. I'll give some thought to it. I'm 59 and also have two boys. I will have to check out this tapping test sometime.