Quantitative assessment of tremor during deep brain stimulation using a wearable glove system

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a crucial surgical procedure for Parkinson´s disease and essential tremor. There is yet no designated system for the accurate monitoring of the stimulating effect. Tremor is prominent in the Parkinson´s disease. A novel wearable glove system for tremor quantification during DBS is presented. Rest, postural and action tremor assessment tasks are chosen as the feedback to the DBS treatment. Each tremor assessment task lasts for 10 seconds. A total of 5 patients with tremor were tested with the first prototype. Time-frequency analysis and statistical analysis were realized based on the inertial measurement unit signals. Results indicate that the tremor frequency was stable for all patients; however, the tremor amplitude fluctuated all the time. Valid state detection algorithm was performed for each assessment task. The mean tremor amplitudes of valid rest and postural tremor tasks correlate well with the clinical scores. After further experiments and verifications, this system is supposed to support the choosing of the optimal target location and stimulation intensity setting of the DBS electrode during DBS surgery.