1. Quantitative Detection of Parkinson's Disease Symptoms
Advisor: Dr. Anita Mahadevan-Jansen
Faraz Ali
James Lugge
Ernest Moore
Mahesh Parlikad

2. Dr. Anita Mahadevan-Jansen, PhD.
Asst. Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Neurological Surgery
Research:
Optical techniques for diagnosis of pathology
Fluorescence, Raman spectroscopy in cancer detection
optical techniques that use laser to discriminate between healthy and diseased tissue in neurosurgery

3. What is Parkinson’s Disease?
Neurodegenerative disorder caused by damaged or dead dopamine-neurons in the substantia nigra
Dopamine: neurotransmitter that carries information from neuron to neuron and eventually out to the muscles
Brain no longer able to direct or control muscle movement in a normal manner.
Half a million people every year are affected by Parkinson’s

4. Symptoms Tremor or trembling in hands, arms, legs, jaw, and face
Rigidity or stiffness of the limbs and trunk
Slowness of motor movements
Postural instability or impaired balance and coordination
Reduced blink rate of eyes

6. Treatment
Drugs: Levodopa/ L-Dopa Drugs designed to mimic dopamine effects or counteract acetylcholine effects
Pallidotomy: Section of globus pallidus removed
Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) : Implants stimulators that block brain signals causing rigidity, tremors and other symptoms

7. Quantitative Measurement of Symptoms
Purpose: To be able to associate numerical values to a patient’s before and after treatment symptoms.
Methods used currently are based on “touch and feel” and are subjective.
We will concentrate on measuring Parkinson’s through two of its symptoms
Reduced eye blinking
Muscle rigidity

8. Proposed Ideas Blink Rate Detector Rigidity Detector
Symptom of Parkinson’s: increased blink rate
Means of detection: EOG
Rigidity Detector
Symptom of Parkinson’s: hand and neck muscles tense
Means of detection: Strain gauge
Acetylcholine Detector
Symptom of Parkinson’s: hand and neck muscles contracted
Means of detection: invasive neurotransmitter detection

9. Reduced Eye Blinking
Loss of automatic control is one of the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
Reduced eye blinking is a feasible symptom that can be quantified by use of an electrooculargram (EOG).
LED + detector combination that detects light reflected back from the eye.

10. Muscle Rigidity Detection
Another symptom is rigid muscles which can occur in the limbs or neck.
A strain gauge can be used to detect the alleviation of rigid muscles.
Strain gauges can detect a change as low as 500με.

11. Methods of Strain Gauge Application
Placement
Wrist
Neck
Material Selection
Comfortable elastic
High sensitivity to small surface changes
Output
Labview

12. Current Status
Have equipment readily available for the blink rate counter
Have a strain gauge but are currently looking for appropriate material to apply the gauge

13. Future Work Collaboration with Dr. Chris Kao
Collaboration with Dr. Peter Conrad
View a Deep Brain Stimulation procedure
Construct the two different designs
Test and compare the two designs
Compare the better method with competitors