Machine learning helps spot gait problems in individuals with multiple sclerosis

Press release:

Monitoring the progression of multiple sclerosis-related gait issues can be challenging in adults over 50 years old, requiring a clinician to differentiate between problems related to MS and other age-related issues. To address this problem, researchers are integrating gait data and machine learning to advance the tools used to monitor and predict disease progression.

A new study of this approach led by University of Illinois Urbana Champaign graduate student Rachneet Kaur, kinesiology and community health professor Manuel Hernandez and industrial and enterprise engineering and mathematics professor Richard Sowers is published in the journal Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

Multiple sclerosis can present itself in many ways in the approximately 2 million people that it affects globally, and walking problems are a common symptom. About half of the patients need walking assistance within 15 years of onset, the study reports.

“We wanted to get a sense of the interactions between aging and concurrent MS disease-related changes, and whether we can also differentiate between the two in older adults with MS,” Hernandez said. “Machine-learning techniques seem to work particularly well at spotting complex hidden changes in performance. We hypothesized that these analysis techniques might also be useful in predicting sudden gait changes in persons with MS.”

Using an instrumented treadmill, the team collected gait data – normalized for body size and demographics – from 20 adults with MS and 20 age-, weight-, height- and gender-matched older adults without MS. The participants walked at a comfortable pace for up to 75 seconds while specialized software captured gait events, corresponding ground reaction forces and center-of-pressure positions during each walk. The team extracted each participant’s characteristic spatial, temporal and kinetic features in their strides to examine variations in gait during each trial.

Changes in various gait features, including a data feature called the butterfly diagram, helped the team detect differences in gait patterns between participants. The diagram gains its name from the butterfly-shaped curve created from the repeated center-of-pressure trajectory for multiple continuous strides during a subject’s walk and is associated with critical neurological functions, the study reports.

Click here to see a video describing this research.

“We study the effectiveness of a gait dynamics-based machine-learning framework to classify strides of older persons with MS from healthy controls to generalize across different walking tasks and over new subjects,” Kaur said. “This proposed methodology is an advancement toward developing an assessment marker for medical professionals to predict older people with MS who are likely to have a worsening of symptoms in the near term.”

Future studies can provide more thorough examinations to manage the study’s small cohort size, Sowers said.

“Biomechanical systems, such as walking, are poorly modeled systems, making it difficult to spot problems in a clinical setting,” Sowers said. “In this study, we are trying to extract conclusions from data sets that include many measurements of each individual, but a small number of individuals. The results of this study make significant headway in the area of clinical machine learning-based disease-prediction strategies.”

Advertisement:

Bestseller No. 1
Don't Judge What You Don't Understand Multiple Sclerosis Awa T-Shirt
  • Don't Judge What You Don't Understand Tee Is Perfect for Men Women Dad Mom Sped Teacher Kids Boys Girls Brothers Sisters Sons Daughters Suffer From Multiple Sclerosis. Wear This Tee on Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Month 2021 to Advocate & Raise Awareness.
  • Matching to Show Empathy Love Acceptance & Support for Special Family Friends Who Are Affected by Multiple Sclerosis. Multiple Sclerosis Warrior, Multiple Sclerosis Supporter, Fighting with Multiple Sclerosis.
  • Lightweight, Classic fit, Double-needle sleeve and bottom hem
Bestseller No. 2
Resilience in the Face of Multiple Sclerosis
  • Amazon Kindle Edition
  • Beaber M.D., Brandon (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 346 Pages - 10/01/2019 (Publication Date) - MS Health (Publisher)
Bestseller No. 3
Womens MS Warrior Messy Bun Leopard - Multiple Sclerosis Awareness T-Shirt
  • Wear It Proudly For Support Of Those With Multiple Sclerosis. Perfect Gift For Ms Awareness For Fighters, Warriors, Nurses, Medical Doctors. Orange Ribbon For Multiple Sclerosis Awareness. Wear Orange For Multiple Sclerosis
  • Support Every Person In Their Fight Against. MS Warrior Unbreakable Sclerosis Awareness. Multiple Sclerosis Awareness, MS Awareness Shirts Orange, Fight MS Awareness, MS Awareness Month, Multiple Sclerosis Apparel For Women, Orange Ribbon Awareness
  • Lightweight, Classic fit, Double-needle sleeve and bottom hem
Bestseller No. 4
Multiple Sclerosis For Dummies
  • Amazon Kindle Edition
  • Kalb, Rosalind (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 634 Pages - 04/04/2012 (Publication Date) - For Dummies (Publisher)
Bestseller No. 6
The Exquisite 2023 Multiple Sclerosis Diet Cookbook: Friendly Guide for Patients with Multiple Sclerosis and Quick Shopping & Easy Essential Diet Recipes
  • Brown, Anna (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 69 Pages - 08/14/2022 (Publication Date) - Independently published (Publisher)
SaleBestseller No. 7
The Multiple Sclerosis Diet Plan and Cookbook: 101 Easy Anti-Inflammatory Recipes
  • DeSantis MS RD CDN, Noelle (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 228 Pages - 12/17/2019 (Publication Date) - Rockridge Press (Publisher)
SaleBestseller No. 8
Multiple Sclerosis, Fifth Edition: A Guide for the Newly Diagnosed
  • Murray MD, T. Jock (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 256 Pages - 09/28/2017 (Publication Date) - Demos Health (Publisher)
Bestseller No. 9
Dahn Yoga for Multiple Sclerosis and Similar Conditions
  • Dawn Quaresima (Actor)
  • Eunjin Lim and Jiin Kim (Director)
Bestseller No. 10
Multiple Sclerosis: The Questions You Have, The Answers You Need
  • Amazon Kindle Edition
  • Kalb MD, Rosalind C. (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 430 Pages - 11/11/2011 (Publication Date) - Demos Health (Publisher)

I get commissions for purchases made through links on this website. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.