ABSTRACT
Review of articles published in peer-reviewed international journals devoted to the issues of rehabilitation of patients with peripheral vestibular dysfunction using virtual reality conditions. IN the review provides a neurophysiological rationale for the use of virtual reality techniques for rehabilitation, the technical methods used to recreate the virtual environment, as well as the published results of their clinical application. It is concluded that the application of virtual reality methods in clinical vestibulology is promising. The search was carried out using the search engines Google Scholar, PubMed, PMC, CrossRef, Science Direct.
Subject(s)
Vestibular Diseases , Virtual Reality , Humans , Postural Balance , Vestibular Diseases/diagnosisABSTRACT
The article presents data on new approaches to the application of the surface electromyogram based on the nonlinear dynamics of complex systems. Special focus is placed on applicability of nonlinear parameters for early and differential diagnostics of Parkinson's disease, various kinds of tremor, schizophrenia, as well as for the estimation of normal processes in the motor system, such as musle development, fatigue and ageing.
Subject(s)
Diagnosis, Differential , Electromyography/methods , Parkinson Disease/diagnosis , Tremor/diagnosis , Aging/pathology , Humans , Nonlinear Dynamics , Parkinson Disease/physiopathology , Schizophrenia/diagnosis , Schizophrenia/physiopathology , Tremor/physiopathologyABSTRACT
The purpose of the study was to evaluate linear and nonlinear tremor characteristics of the hand in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and to compare the results with those of healthy old and young control subjects. Furthermore, the aim was to study correlation between tremor characteristics and clinical signs. A variety of nonlinear (sample entropy, cross-sample entropy, recurrence rate, determinism and correlation dimension) and linear (amplitude, spectral peak frequency and total power, and coherence) hand tremor parameters were computed from acceleration measurements for PD patients (n = 30, 68.3 ± 7.8 years), and old (n = 20, 64.2 ± 7.0 years) and young (n = 20, 18.4 ± 1.1 years) control subjects. Nonlinear tremor parameters such as determinism, sample entropy and cross-sample entropy were significantly different between the PD patients and healthy controls. These parameters correlated with the Unified Parkinson's disease rating scale (UPDRS), tremor and finger tapping scores, but not with the rigidity scores. Linear tremor parameters such as the amplitude and the maximum power (power corresponding to peak frequency) also correlated with the clinical findings. No major difference was detected in the tremor characteristics between old and young control subjects. The study revealed that tremor in PD patients is more deterministic and regular when compared to old or young healthy controls. The nonlinear tremor parameters can differentiate patients with PD from healthy control subjects and these parameters may have potential in the assessment of the severity of PD (UPDRS).
