Diagnosis of Parkinson's disease: A limit cycle approach

Parkinson's disease is characterized by increased reaction times in both voluntary and involuntary motor responses and often results in unintended oscillatory motion of body parts, termed as Parkinsonian tremor. A simple and efficient method for diagnosing Parkinson's disease is still not available and furthermore, on the correct diagnosis of Parkinson's disease, estimating the severity of the disease is challenging. This is particularly important since the medications typically prescribed to address the symptoms of Parkinson's disease have adverse side effects and thus the dosages have to be finely optimized. In this paper, based on a systems theory perspective and a recently suggested control-system analogy [11], a simple method for the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease is explored. This paper also discusses the possibility of developing a low-cost diagnostic device and strategies for the same. Future work will focus on using data from real patients to validate the hypotheses and results in this paper. © 2013 IEEE.