Quantitative Evaluation of Cerebellar Ataxia Through Automated Assessment of Upper Limb Movements

Abstract

Cerebellar damage can result in peripheral dysfunction manifesting as poor and inaccurate coordination, irregular movements, and tremors. Conventionally, the severity assessment of Cerebellar ataxia (CA) is primarily based on expert clinical opinion and hence likely to be subjective. In order to establish inter-rater concordance with enhanced reliability and effectiveness in the assessment of upper limb function, a novel automated system employing Microsoft Kinect© is considered to capture the motion of the patient's finger for objective assessment. This essentially mimics the commonly used finger tracking task clinically assessed through subjective observation. A clinical trial was conducte..