Novel MS vital sign: multi-sensor captures upper and lower limb dysfunction.

Area of Science:

• Neurology
• Biomedical Engineering
• Wearable Technology

Background:

• Multiple Sclerosis (MS) poses a significant challenge in accurately quantifying limb disability.
• Existing methods for assessing MS-related limb impairment can be time-consuming and subjective.
• There is a need for a rapid, objective, and reliable measure of neurological function in MS patients.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel neurological vital sign for capturing MS-related limb disability.
• To create a quick (<5 min) and reliable assessment tool for neurological function.
• To correlate sensor-derived metrics with established clinical disability scales.

Main Methods:

• Participants with MS and healthy controls underwent assessments using a MYO-band© device.
• The MYO-band© captured accelerometer, gyroscope, and electromyogram data during finger and foot tapping tasks.
• Signal processing extracted spatiotemporal features, which were then correlated with physician (EDSS) and patient-reported (WHODAS) disability outcomes.

Main Results:

• The developed sensor system demonstrated high inter-test reproducibility (ICCs 0.80–0.87).
• Extracted features significantly distinguished MS patients from healthy controls (P=0.002).
• Sensor-derived metrics showed strong correlations with physician-reported EDSS (r_s=0.77–0.82) and patient-reported WHODAS (r_s=0.82).

Conclusions:

• Multi-sensor extracted features strongly correlate with gold-standard neurological disability outcomes.
• This novel wearable sensor paradigm shows promise as a new neurological vital sign for MS.
• The rapid, non-disruptive assessment is suitable for widespread clinical use and future generalizability.