Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Palombo, Kenneth Turner McGill

Titel

Development of an Inertial Measurement-Based Assessment of Disease Severity in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Link zum Volltext

• ProQuest

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• More than two million Americans suffer from myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). While ME/CFS is still poorly understood, a recent upsurge in related research has identified the disease’s core symptoms, including post-exertional malaise (PEM) and unrefreshing sleep. The FDA has yet to approve any treatments for ME/CFS, partially due to a lack of validated efficacy endpoints. The central focus of this research is to develop ME/CFS efficacy endpoints using a non-invasive, inertial measurement-based approach. Accessible endpoints will provide a way to properly evaluate potential treatments for ME/CFS. In this research, an inertial measurement-based assessment of upright activity—referred to as UpTime—is validated. Furthermore, potential efficacy endpoints corresponding to unrefreshing sleep are evaluated using data from an Oura Ring. Using a Kalman filter, inertial measurement unit (IMU) data can be converted to optimized leg angle estimates. These angle estimates can then be converted to personalized daily UpTime scores. In a 6-day, case-control study conducted at the Bateman Horne Center, UpTime and Oura Ring sleep data were collected from 15 subjects (five controls, five moderate-level ME/CFS, and five severe-level ME/CFS). Analysis of UpTime data collected during this study indicates that each of these groups spends different proportions of their days upright and active. This result indicates that UpTime can accurately detect upright posture that can be a surrogate for disease severity. UpTime is, therefore, a reliable endpoint for evaluating treatment efficacy. While the sleep data collected by the Oura Rings was interesting, our analysis did not yield any significant insights; this is most likely due to short data collection periods and insufficient sampling. Future studies with extended data collection periods are required to fully evaluate the value of the Oura Ring as a measurement tool for unrefreshing sleep. Together, Oura Rings and IMUs could provide a platform to more easily measure efficacy endpoints related to the core symptoms of ME/CFS. With the added perspective of large-scale studies, this sensor-based platform could provide a recovery path for individuals struggling with ME/CFS.