Clinical Assessments in Parkinson's Disease: Scales and Monitoring

Abstract

Measurement of disease state is essential in both clinical practice and research in order to assess the severity and progression of a patient's disease status, effect of treatment, and alterations in other relevant factors. Parkinson's disease (PD) is a complex disorder expressed through many motor and nonmotor manifestations, which cause disabilities that can vary both gradually over time or come on suddenly. In addition, there is a wide interpatient variability making the appraisal of the many facets of this disease difficult. Two kinds of measure are used for the evaluation of PD. The first is subjective, inferential, based on rater-based interview and examination or patient self-assessment, and consist of rating scales and questionnaires. These evaluations provide estimations of conceptual, nonobservable factors (e.g., symptoms), usually scored on an ordinal scale. The second type of measure is objective, factual, based on technology-based devices capturing physical characteristics of the pathological phenomena (e.g., sensors to measure the frequency and amplitude of tremor). These instrumental evaluations furnish appraisals with real numbers on an interval scale for which a unit exists. In both categories of measures, a broad variety of tools exist. This chapter aims to present an up-to-date summary of the most relevant characteristics of the most widely used scales, questionnaires, and technological resources currently applied to the assessment of PD. The review concludes that, in our opinion: (1) no assessment methods can substitute the clinical judgment and (2) subjective and objective measures in PD complement each other, each method having strengths and weaknesses.

Keywords: Ambulatory monitoring; Body-fixed sensors; Objective assessment; Questionnaires; Scales; Sensors; Wearables.