Tremor assessment using spiral analysis in time-frequency domain

The paper proposed a method for tremor assessment of the Archimedean spiral based on spiral analysis in the time-frequency domain. Spiral analysis is a method of analyzing the drawing of Archimedean spiral to quantify motor activity and evaluate the possible movement disorder symptom such as tremor, an involuntary trembling or shaking movements in one or more parts of the body. One of the most common degenerative disorders of the central nervous system that causes the tremor is Parkinson´s disease (PD). It is usually a slowly progressing disease which affects the patient with the following symptoms: tremor, rigidity, slowness of movement, and postural instability. Clinical observation is needed to diagnose the tremor, which requires a trained specialist. Thus, an additional method is desirable to help in the diagnosis process and possibly improve the early detection as well as the measurement of disease severity. Many studies have reported that the spiral analysis may be useful in the diagnosis of motor dysfunction in PD and other movement disorder patients. Moreover, the spiral drawing test can easily be performed using a mobile tablet from anywhere not limited to a hospital. We propose a method for classification of spiral drawing based on spiral analysis in the time-frequency domain. The preliminary result of the selected feature in the time-frequency domain shows that this method could potentially be used to distinguish between movement disorder patient and healthy control.