Messtechnische Erfassung und objektive Bewertung von Bewegungsmustern beim Säugling

• Measurement and objective assessment of movement patterns in newborns

Heinze, Franziska; Rau, Günter (Thesis advisor)

Aachen : Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen University (2010, 2011)
Dissertation / PhD Thesis

Aachen, Techn. Hochsch., Diss., 2010

Abstract

The most frequent cause of handicap and especially of movement disorders in children is infantile cerebral palsy (ICP). To limit the consequences of ICP, physiotherapy should start at the earliest age possible. This requires that affected infants are diagnosed early. Today, diagnosis is based on visual observation of the spontaneous movements of the infant by physicians. The so-called general movement assessment (GMA) is a subjective procedure based on the observer’s acquired expertise and as such is influenced by subjective impressions. Although seemingly effective, GMA is not necessarily easily applicable in a clinical setting, possibly due to its subjective character. There is an incipient demand for more objective methods and some developments are done, but the systems to assist physicians with less experience in GMA are too expensive to be established in pediatric offices and not easy usable enough to be used in daily routine. Based on the prior research and the improvements in accelerometers’ technology, a methodology has been developed which allows the objective and quantitative description of unconstrained spontaneous movement in newborns and additionally is able to be established in pediatric offices to be used in daily routine. Basing on the signal detection a pattern recognition process was established. The interpretation of the classification results is done by an expert-support-system. The methodology presented allows a reliable discrimination between healthy and affected subjects. Overall detection rate is comparable to the detection rates of trained medical experts. In combination with the low expenses, less time consuming, easy to manage, portability and light weight the method is able to be used in clinical routine. These are essential requirements, to make this system available to a huge amount of infants. With an early diagnosis of ICP it is possible to minimize follow-up problems, therefore to relieve the health care system and the most important to enhance considerably the quality of life for the patients and their families.

Institutions

• [811001-1]