Science in the News
The article that I have chosen is Early Detection of Parkinson’s disease through handwriting. The topic of this article is disorders and syndromes: Parkinson’s disease. The authors of this article are Sara Rosenblum, Margalit Samuel, Sharon Zlotnik, Llana Erikh, and Llana Schlesinger. The source I used to come to this article is sciencedaily.com.
Dr. Ilana Schlesinger, head of the Center for Movement Disorders and Parkinson's disease at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center and occupational therapists helped to conduct this experiment. Prof. Sara Rosenblum, of the University of Haifa’s Department of Occupational Therapy, initiated the study. She believed that identifying the changes in handwriting could lead to an early diagnosis of the illness.
During this study, they gathered forty participants, all adults with at least twelve years of schooling. Half of the participants healthy, and the other half known to be in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease (before motor signs are visible). They were instructed to write their names and a given address on a regular piece of paper that was placed on electronic tablet, while using a special pen that had pressure-sensitive sensors operated by the pen when it hits the writing surface. The number of parameters: writing form, time required, and the pressured exerted were compared using a computerized analysis. Once the results were in, it showed a great difference between the healthy and the patients. All subjects, except for one had their status correctly diagnosed. The patients with Parkinson’s disease wrote with less pressure on the surface and with smaller letters, taking longer to complete the task. Professor Rosenblum, a noticeable difference was the length of time the pen was in the air between writing each letter and word.
This article proves an effective way to notice if you have Parkinson’s disease at an early stage before motor signs are visible, through a person’s handwriting. Professor Rosenblum and Dr.
Dr. Ilana Schlesinger, head of the Center for Movement Disorders and Parkinson's disease at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center and occupational therapists helped to conduct this experiment. Prof. Sara Rosenblum, of the University of Haifa’s Department of Occupational Therapy, initiated the study. She believed that identifying the changes in handwriting could lead to an early diagnosis of the illness.
During this study, they gathered forty participants, all adults with at least twelve years of schooling. Half of the participants healthy, and the other half known to be in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease (before motor signs are visible). They were instructed to write their names and a given address on a regular piece of paper that was placed on electronic tablet, while using a special pen that had pressure-sensitive sensors operated by the pen when it hits the writing surface. The number of parameters: writing form, time required, and the pressured exerted were compared using a computerized analysis. Once the results were in, it showed a great difference between the healthy and the patients. All subjects, except for one had their status correctly diagnosed. The patients with Parkinson’s disease wrote with less pressure on the surface and with smaller letters, taking longer to complete the task. Professor Rosenblum, a noticeable difference was the length of time the pen was in the air between writing each letter and word.
This article proves an effective way to notice if you have Parkinson’s disease at an early stage before motor signs are visible, through a person’s handwriting. Professor Rosenblum and Dr.