Using Sensors To Improve Neuropathy Balance

Today's post from podiatrytoday.com (see link below) talks about using technology to monitor balance issues for people with neuropathic foot problems. It involves a sort of physiotherapy that involves interactive balance training, using information gleaned from sensors. Unfortunately, the article doesn't go into detail about the sensors themselves, which I'm sure most readers are interested in. However, there's no doubt that more emphasis on training to avoid loss of balance due to numbness and wrong signals would be very helpful to all people living with neuropathy - it's a somewhat neglected area of neuropathy treatment. Don't worry about the title reference to diabetes - it applies to all forms of neuropathy.

Can Sensors And Balance Exercises Improve Balance And Reduce Fall Risk In People With Diabetic Neuropathy?
Thursday, 02/26/15 David G. Armstrong DPM MD PhD
 
Diabetic peripheral neuropathy can be a risk factor for falls due to deficits in sensory and motor skills that can lead to proprioceptive difficulties. In a new study in Gerontology, my coauthors and I investigate the use of interactive balance training to increase postural stability.1

The randomized study performed at our unit focused on 39 patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (with an average age of 63.7 years) with one group performing sensor-based interactive exercise twice a week for four weeks and the other group being a control group.1 The exercises included shifting weight and crossing virtual obstacles. Participants wore sensors to acquire kinematic data and provide real-time joint visual feedback during the training.

Patients in the intervention group showed a significantly reduced center of motion sway, ankle sway and hip joint sway during the balance test with open eyes, according to the study.1 Ankle sway in our study was also significantly lower in the intervention group during measurements while the eyes were closed. These promising data certainly provide early evidence to potentially promote the use of wearable technology in exercise training but we need future studies to compare this technology with commercially available systems to evaluate the benefit of interactive visual joint movement feedback.

There are some really extraordinary technologies available to us in the sensor world. Trends are moving to smaller, cheaper and more flexible sensors. Some of the newest flexible sensors we have available are actually more like medical tattoos. These sensors would normally have taken up an entire backpack just a few years ago. The sensors are becoming so inexpensive and so ubiquitous that we are not only going to be able to measure aspects of instability but we are also going to be able to intervene right away by trying to measure and steadily improve people’s postural stability. By doing this, I believe we can reduce the completely unnecessary number of falls and unnecessary morbidity and death that occurs every day in homes and hospitals not only in the United States but around the world.

This problem of falls is getting more and more common not only in people with diabetes but also in the aging population overall. This fall risk is preventing people from being independent, productive members of society, keeping them at home and putting them forever on this cycle of dependence. We think these sort of sensors can really help us measure what we manage as doctors and patients.

Reference

1. Grewal GS, Schwenk M, Lee-Eng J, et al. Sensor-based interactive balance training with visual joint movement feedback for improving postural stability in diabetics with peripheral neuropathy: a randomized controlled trial. Gerontology. 2015; epub ahead of print.

http://www.podiatrytoday.com/blogged/can-sensors-and-balance-exercises-improve-balance-and-reduce-fall-risk-people-diabetic