Automated vision-based analysis of levodopa-induced dyskinesia with deep learning

Levodopa is the gold standard therapy for Parkinson's disease (PD), but its prolonged usage leads to additional motor complications, namely levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID). To assess LID and adjust drug regimens for optimal relief, patients attend regular clinic visits. However, the intermittent nature of these visits can fail to capture important changes in a person's condition. With the recent emergence of deep learning achieving impressive results in a wide array of fields including computer vision, there is an opportunity for video analysis to be used for automated assessment of LID. Deep learning for pose estimation was studied as a viable means of extracting body movements from PD assessment videos. Movement features were computed from joint trajectories. Results show that features derived from vision-based analysis have moderate to good correlation with clinician ratings of dyskinesia severity. This study presents the first application of deep learning to video analysis in PD, and demonstrates promise for future development of a non-contact system for objective PD assessment.