MOTOR PHENOMENON MEASUREMENT
First Claim
1. A method of assessing a degree of severity of a motor sign directly mediated by a pharmacological agent in a human patient, comprising the steps of:
- a. establishing a recording of the patient'"'"'s performance of a motor task;
b. deriving from said recording a measure selected from the group including a measure of dysfluency and a measure of bradykinesia; and
c. inferring a degree of the motor sign from said measure.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Motor phenomena are measured by using a pen-and-tablet digitizer and a personal computer to instruct, prompt and make a data record of a human patient'"'"'s performance of a handwriting task, analyze the data record, and report features of the patient'"'"'s performance. Examples of reported features are measures of dysfluency and measures of velocity scaling. Reported features are correlated with information about the patient'"'"'s state of health (especially schizophrenia), medication (especially antipsychotic and neuroleptic) as a superior alternative to scales based on clinical observation for detecting motor effects of a medication, comparing side effects of medications, adjusting dosages, and observing the course of motor disturbances such as Parkinsonism and tardive dyskinesia.
52 Citations
33 Claims
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1. A method of assessing a degree of severity of a motor sign directly mediated by a pharmacological agent in a human patient, comprising the steps of:
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a. establishing a recording of the patient'"'"'s performance of a motor task; b. deriving from said recording a measure selected from the group including a measure of dysfluency and a measure of bradykinesia; and c. inferring a degree of the motor sign from said measure. - View Dependent Claims (3, 23, 25, 26)
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2. (canceled)
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4. A method of assessing a motor si n in a human patient, comprising the steps of:
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a. establishing a recording of the patient'"'"'s performance of a motor task; b. deriving from said recording a vertical or horizontal movement component in the writing plane; and c. inferring a degree of the motor sign from said measure.
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5. A method of assessing a motor sign in a human patient, comprising the steps of:
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a. establishing recording of the patient'"'"'s performance of a motor task; b. deriving from said recording a measure of dysfluency or a measure of bradykinesia; and c. inferring a degree of the motor sign from said measure, wherein said step of establishing said recording further comprises prompting the patient to write predetermined content with a writing instrument on a writing surface and acquiring recorded data as the patient does so.
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6. A method of assessing a motor sign in a human patient, comprising the steps of:
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a. establishing a recording of the patient'"'"'s performance of a motor task, said task comprising a handwriting task of drawing a plurality of figures of different sizes; b. deriving a peak velocity increase and a vertical size increase in the writing plane from said recording; and c. inferring a degree of the motor sign from said peak velocity increase and said vertical size increase.
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7. (canceled)
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8. A method of assessing a motor sign in a human patient, comprising the steps of
a. establishing a recording the patient'"'"'s performance of motor task, said task comprising hand-writing a plurality of figures of different sizes; -
b. deriving a measure of velocity scaling from said recording; and c. inferring a degree of the motor sign from said measure of velocity scaling, wherein the figures have loops with vertical sizes between approximately one centimeter and approximately four centimeters. - View Dependent Claims (9)
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10. A method of assessing a motor sign in a human patient, comprising the steps of:
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a. establishing a recording of the patient'"'"'s performance of a motor task, said task comprising a handwriting task of drawing a plurality of figures of different sizes; b. deriving a measure of velocity scaling from said recording; and c. inferring a degree of the motor sign from said measure of velocity scaling, wherein said step of establishing said recording further comprises prompting the patient to write predetermined content with a writing instrument on a writing surface and recording data as the patient does so.
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11. (canceled)
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12. A method of detecting a drug side effect in a human patient, comprising the steps of:
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a. ascertaining the patient'"'"'s medication status with reference to a drug; b. establishing a recording of the patient'"'"'s performance of a handwriting task; c. deriving from said recording at least one measure selected from the group containing a measure of dysfluency and a measure of bradykinesia; d. establishing a plurality of recordings of performances of said handwriting task by a plurality of patients in a population of patients, each such patient having known medication status with reference to said drug; e. deriving from said plurality of recordings at least one measure selected from the group containing a measure of dysfluency and a measure of bradykinesia; f. making a first comparison of said at least one measure derived from said recording of the patient'"'"'s performance with said at least one measure derived from said recordings of said performances by said plurality of patients in said population; g. making a second comparison of the patient'"'"'s medication status to said medication status of said plurality of patients; and h. inferring a degree of the drug side effect of said drug in the patient from said first comparison and said second comparison. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 24, 27, 28)
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15. Apparatus for assessing a motor sign in a human patient, comprising:
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a. a handwriting recording device comprising a handwriting instrument and a handwriting surface; and b. a computer operatively coupled to said handwriting recording device and programmed to input data therefrom and to compute from said data and report a measure of a motor sign indicating dysfluency or bradykinesia. - View Dependent Claims (16)
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17. A method of assessing a motor sign in a human patient, the method comprising the steps of:
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a. with a data processing apparatus, interacting with the patient to communicate to the patient a task and prompting the patient to perform said task; b. with the data processing apparatus interacting with the patient, establishing a recording over a first time period having an end defined as cessation of movement or as the expiration of a predetermined time period; c. with the data processing apparatus, testing said recording for a condition that said recorded performance is consistent with said communicated task; d. with the data processing apparatus, unless said condition is true, rejecting said recording and again prompting the patient to perform said communicated task; e. accepting said recording and appending said recording to a collection of data; f. repeating the aforementioned steps of communicating, prompting, establishing, testing and accepting until said recording has been established and accepted a predetermined number of times; g. deriving from said collection of recorded data a measure selected from the group containing a measure of dysfluency and a measure of bradykinesia; and h. inferring a degree of the motor sign from said measure. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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21. A method of monitoring a patient'"'"'s compliance with a medication regimen, comprising the steps of:
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a. establishing a recording of the patient'"'"'s performance of a motor task, said task comprising hand writing a plurality of figures of different sizes; b. deriving from said recording a plurality of peak values selected from the group containing velocity values and duration values, each with respect to one or more figures of different sizes; c. computing a quotient by dividing said peak values by corresponding ones of different sizes; d. comparing said quotient with one or more values of said quotient obtained from a reference set, said reference set being selected from the group containing a set of quotient values obtained from a population of patients and a set of quotient values obtained from the same patient at different times, said reference set being associated with data pertaining to compliance with a medication regimen; and e. inferring the patient'"'"'s compliance status from said comparison.
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22. A method of monitoring a patient'"'"'s compliance with a medication regimen, comprising the steps of:
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a. establishing a recording of the patient'"'"'s performance of a motor task, said task comprising hand writing a plurality of figures of different sizes; b. deriving from said recording a plurality of relative duration values each with respect to one or more figures of different sizes; c. computing a quotient by dividing said relative duration values by corresponding ones of different sizes; d. comparing said quotient with one or more values of said quotient obtained from a reference set, said reference set being selected from the group containing a set of quotient values obtained from a population of patients and a set of quotient values obtained from the same patient at different times, said reference set being associated with data pertaining to compliance with a medication regimen; and e. inferring the patient'"'"'s compliance status from said comparison.
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29. A method of assessing a motor sign in a human patient, comprising the steps of:
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a. establishing a recording of the patient'"'"'s performance of a motor task entailing drawing a plurality of figures of different sizes; b. deriving a peak velocity increase and a vertical size increase from said recording; and c. inferring a degree of the motor sign from said peak velocity increase and said vertical size increase.
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30. A method of assessing a motor sign in a human patient, comprising the steps of:
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a. establishing a recording of the patient'"'"'s performance of a motor task; b. deriving a measure of dysfluency from said recording; and c. inferring a degree of the motor sign from said measure of dysfluency, wherein said measure of dysfluency is derived with reference to a computation of average normalized jerk. - View Dependent Claims (31)
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32. (canceled)
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33. A method of assessing a motor sign in a human patient, comprising the steps of:
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a. establishing a recording of the patient'"'"'s performance of a motor task entailing drawing plurality of figures of different sizes; b. deriving a measure of velocity scaling from said recording; and c. inferring a degree of the motor sign from said measure of velocity scaling, wherein step a further comprises drawing loops having vertical sizes between approximately one centimeter and approximately four centimeters.
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Specification