Spontaneous movements in the newborns: a tool of quantitative video analysis of preterm babies

Chiara Tacchino; Martina Impagliazzo; Erika Maggi; Marta Bertamino; Isa Blanchi; Francesca Campone; Paola Durand; Marco Fato; Psiche Giannoni; Riccardo Iandolo; Massimiliano Izzo; Pietro Morasso; Paolo Moretti; Luca Ramenghi; Keisuke Shima; Koji Shimatani; Toshio Tsuji; Sara Uccella; Nicolò Zanardi; Maura Casadio

doi:10.1016/j.cmpb.2020.105838

Spontaneous movements in the newborns: a tool of quantitative video analysis of preterm babies

Comput Methods Programs Biomed. 2021 Feb:199:105838. doi: 10.1016/j.cmpb.2020.105838. Epub 2020 Nov 21.

Authors

Chiara Tacchino¹, Martina Impagliazzo², Erika Maggi², Marta Bertamino¹, Isa Blanchi¹, Francesca Campone¹, Paola Durand¹, Marco Fato², Psiche Giannoni², Riccardo Iandolo³, Massimiliano Izzo⁴, Pietro Morasso³, Paolo Moretti¹, Luca Ramenghi⁵, Keisuke Shima⁶, Koji Shimatani⁷, Toshio Tsuji⁸, Sara Uccella¹, Nicolò Zanardi², Maura Casadio⁹

Affiliations

¹ Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Gaslini Pediatric Hospital, Genoa, Italy.
² DIBRIS dept., University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy.
³ DIBRIS dept., University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy; RBCS dept., Italian Institute of Technology, Genoa, Italy.
⁴ DIBRIS dept., University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy; Oxford e-Research Centre, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
⁵ Intensive Therapy and Neonatal Pathology, Gaslini Pediatric Hospital, Genoa, Italy.
⁶ Faculty of Engineering, Yokohama National University, Yokohama, Japan.
⁷ Dept. of Physical Therapy, Prefectural University of Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan.
⁸ Dept. of System Cybernetics, Graduate School of Engineering, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan.
⁹ DIBRIS dept., University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy; RBCS dept., Italian Institute of Technology, Genoa, Italy. Electronic address: maura.casadio@unige.it.

PMID: 33421664
DOI: 10.1016/j.cmpb.2020.105838

Abstract

Background and objectives: The number of preterm babies is steadily growing world-wide and these neonates are at risk of neuro-motor-cognitive deficits. The observation of spontaneous movements in the first three months of age is known to predict such risk. However, the analysis by specifically trained physiotherapists is not suited for the clinical routine, motivating the development of simple computerized video analysis systems, integrated with a well-structured Biobank to make available for preterm babies a growing service with diagnostic, prognostic and epidemiological purposes.

Methods: MIMAS (Markerless Infant Movement Analysis System) is a simple, low-cost system of video analysis of spontaneous movements of newborns in their natural environment, based on a single standard RGB camera, without markers attached to the body. The original videos are transformed into binarized sequences highlighting the silhouette of the baby, in order to minimize the illumination effects and increase the robustness of the analysis; such sequences are then coded by a large set of parameters (39) related to the spatial and spectral changes of the silhouette. The parameter vectors of each baby were stored in the Biobank together with related clinical information.

Results: The preliminary test of the system was carried out at the Gaslini Pediatric Hospital in Genoa, where 46 preterm (PT) and 21 full-term (FT) babies (as controls) were recorded at birth (T0) and 8-12 weeks thereafter (T1). A simple statistical analysis of the data showed that the coded parameters are sensitive to the degree of maturation of the newborns (comparing T0 with T1, for both PT and FT babies), and to the conditions at birth (PT vs. FT at T0), whereas this difference tends to vanish at T1. Moreover, the coding method seems also able to detect the few 'abnormal' preterm babies in the PT populations that were analyzed as specific case studies.

Conclusions: Preliminary results motivate the adoption of this tool in clinical practice allowing for a systematic accumulation of cases in the Biobank, thus for improving the accuracy of data analysis performed by MIMAS and ultimately allowing the adoption of data mining techniques.

Keywords: Cerebral Palsy; General Movements; Newborn babies; digital repository; early diagnosis; monitoring system; movement analysis; preterm births; video image processing.

MeSH terms

Child
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Infant, Premature*
Movement*