A multisensor approach to perform instrumented postural instability tests for patient with Parkinson disease

Postural instability is one of the symptoms of the Parkinson's disease among rigidity, tremor and bradykinesia, which can cause falls. In order to assess the postural instability of patient with the Parkinson disease the Time Up and Go and the Pull Tests are performed in structured laboratory equipped with expensive monitoring systems. Moreover, the validity of the tests can be compromised by the nonstandard solicitation provided to the patient. The solution proposed in this paper consists of a low cost multisensor system which allows to implement an objective estimation of the input stimulus as well as the assessment of the user response. Results obtained demonstrated the feasibility and the suitability of the methodology proposed.