Measuring movement irregularity in the upper motor neurone syndrome using normalised average rectified jerk

Movement irregularity is a feature of the upper motor neurone (UMN) syndrome which is difficult to measure. Average rectified jerk (ARJ) has been proposed as a measure of this movement irregularity, but ARJ depends upon the duration of movement. Since movements may be slower in UMN patients, duration dependence compromises ARJ as a measure of irregularity. A normalisation technique is proposed that generates a measure of movement irregularity which is independent of movement duration: normalised average rectified jerk (NARJ). This paper presents a validation of NARJ in the UMN syndrome. Nine control subjects, nine left hemiparetic stroke patients and nine right hemiparetic stroke patients were studied. Test movements comprised elbow extension/flexion in the horizontal plane; these were recorded with an electro-goniometer and accelerometer. The effectiveness of the normalisation technique has been demonstrated using trajectories of various durations; some of these were artificially generated from participants' trajectories, in order to preserve the movement profile. The variability of NARJ and ARJ have been compared in a sample of control subjects. NARJ has been criterion validated by correlation with expert subjective rating of irregularity in a heterogeneous set of trajectories. Construct validity has been tested by discrimination between movements of control subjects, left hemiparetic stroke patients and right hemiparetic stroke patients. When comparing trajectories of identical profile but two-fold difference in movement duration, NARJ differed only 2.6% whereas ARJ differed 706%. NARJ was less reproducible in healthy participants than ARJ: median non-parametric coefficients of variation for repeated movements were 55% and 41%, respectively. Spearman rank correlation coefficient for NARJ and expert rating was 0.92 (p<0.01). NARJ measurements on right hemiparetic patients differ significantly from those made on the control group (p<0.02); corresponding ARJ measurements do not attain statistical significance. NARJ is a valid measure of movement irregularity in the UMN syndrome.