Background/objective: Easily applicable, quantitative assessment of movement is widely needed in various clinical settings, especially in the evaluation of Parkinson's disease (PD).
Methods: We developed a highly repeatable tablet computer-based finger movement assessment system (FMAS) to record finger movement profile in a visual-motor task both in PD (n = 217) and healthy participants (n = 221).
Results: We found age-related declines in finger movement performance among the healthy participants but not in PD patients with the FMAS. Significant differences in movement time (MT) and latency/MT ratio but not in latency were observed in PD patients as compared with healthy subjects (P < 0.000). Meanwhile, we identified the latency/MT ratio as the optimal parameter to differentiate PD from age-matched healthy subjects in an age-independent manner (cut-off 1.08 with corresponding AUC = 0.861). In addition, a significant correlation was found between finger movement parameters and the Hoehn and Yahr scale (H-Y scale), UPDRS III score and the duration of the disease in PD patients (P < 0.01).
Conclusion: It was suggested that the tablet computer-based evaluation of finger movement provided an easily applicable quantitative method to assess the conditions of PD patients.
Keywords: Parkinson’s disease; finger movement profile; hypokinesia; quantitative assessment; visual motor task.