Text

theses

Neurological disorders or cerebrovascular accidents can affect one’s ability to perform activities of daily living, requiring a team of specialists to assess the condition and plan proper treatment. However, current methods used to evaluate aspects of motor impairment are subjective, which may lead to inconsistent and inaccurate assessments and ultimately affect the therapy protocol. Herein, focus was directed toward the development of an objective, reliable metric based on quantification of motion presented in the phase domain. To begin, representations of single-joint extension-flexion were examined to assess graphing features that become more prominent with impaired motion. From this work, it was shown that alternative methods of displaying movement data retain features that distinguish impaired movement, while providing a distinct visual record for quick comparison. Further work focused on the development of a novel scheme—based on computational geometry—for quantifying the area enclosed by complex phase portraits, validation of its performance (accuracy, sensitivity, specificity > 96%), and application in a metric of motor performance, the Phase Area Ratio (PAR). The final focus demonstrated the use of PAR to track progression of SPMS subjects, receiving anti-spasticity drug treatment. PAR did not improve significantly in the upper extremities between the baseline test session and the one-month follow up test session, but it was revealed that scores were significantly dependent on the movement pace. It is concluded that phase portraits provide a viable means to capture and quantify the idiosyncrasies of human movement and are a useful tool for tracking progression of hemiparetic individuals through treatment.

ETD_6563

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Minoosh K. Moradi

doi:10.7282/T31J9CS6

ETD doctoral

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