Engineering Commons^™

On The Reliability Of Wearable Sensors For Assessing Movement Disorder-Related Gait Quality And Imbalance: A Case Study Of Multiple Sclerosis, Steven Díaz Hernández

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Approximately 33 million American adults had a movement disorder associated with medication use, ear infections, injury, or neurological disorders in 2008, with over 18 million people affected by neurological disorders worldwide. Physical therapists assist people with movement disorders by providing interventions to reduce pain, improve mobility, avoid surgeries, and prevent falls and secondary complications of neurodegenerative disorders. Current gait assessments used by physical therapists, such as the Multiple Sclerosis Walking Scale, provide only semi-quantitative data, and cannot assess walking quality in detail or describe how one’s walking quality changes over time. As a result, quantitative systems have grownas useful tools …

Quantifying The Friedreich Ataxia Rating Scale And The Functional Performance Measures, Chelsea Rene Davis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Friedreich Ataxia (FA) is a debilitating autosomal-recessive neurodegenerative disorder which is characterized by ataxia of all four limbs, difficulty walking, areflexia, and dysarthria. Further complications of FA include diabetes, scoliosis, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Approximately three-quarters of people with FA have onset before the age of 25 and in most instances, affected individuals will require the use of a wheelchair within ten years after symptoms emerge.

The current advancements in clinical trials have escalated the developmental demand for a scale which validates adjustments in FA. The Friedreich Ataxia Rating Scale (FARS) is a disease-specific semi-qualitative assessment which includes three subscales (functional …