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Wireless inertial measurement unit (IMU)-based posturography

  • Otology
  • Published:
European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Classical posturography techniques have been recently enhanced by the use of different motion tracking devices, but for technical reasons they are not used to track directly the body spatial position of a subject.

Objective

To describe and clinically evaluate a wireless inertial measurement unit-based mobile system to track body position changes.

Methods

The developed system used a calculus transformation method using the acceleration data corrected by Kalman and Butterworth filters to output position data. A prospective non-randomized clinical study involving 15 healthy subjects was performed to evaluate the agreement between the confidence ellipse areas synchronously measured by the new developed system and a classical posturography system while performing a modified clinical test of sensory interaction in balance.

Results

The overall intra-class correlation index was 0.93 (CI 0.89, 0.96). Grouped by conditions, under conditions 1–4, Pearson’s correlation was 0.604, 0.78, 0.882, and 0.81, respectively.

Conclusion

The developed wireless inertial measurement unit-based posturography system was valid for tracking the sway variances in normal subjects under habitual clinical testing conditions. Further studies are needed to validate this system on patients and also under other posture conditions.

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Funding

No funding was received for this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neurolotlogy Unit, ENT Department, Hospital Universitario Donostia, Donostia, Spain

    Ariadna Valldeperes, Xabier Altuna, Zuriñe Martinez-Basterra & Jorge Rey-Martinez

  2. Otorhinolaryngology Unit, Hospital Lucus Augusti, Lugo, Spain

    Marcos Rossi-Izquierdo

  3. ENT Department, Hospital Universitario Dr. Negrín, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

    Jesus Benitez-Rosario

  4. ENT Department, Clinica Universidad de Navarra, Madrid, Spain

    Nicolas Perez-Fernandez

  5. Departamento de Otorrinolaringología, Hospital Universitario Donostia, Paseo Doctor Beguiristain, 20014, Donostia, Spain

    Jorge Rey-Martinez

Authors
  1. Ariadna Valldeperes
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  2. Xabier Altuna
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  3. Zuriñe Martinez-Basterra
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  4. Marcos Rossi-Izquierdo
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  5. Jesus Benitez-Rosario
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  6. Nicolas Perez-Fernandez
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  7. Jorge Rey-Martinez
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jorge Rey-Martinez.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

Because not medical device CE mark measurement non-invasive devices were used on humans for this study, local government ethic committee (CEIC-Donostia) was required and obtained for this study.

Statement of human rights

This clinical study was designed and performed in accordance with the ethical guidelines of the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki.

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Valldeperes, A., Altuna, X., Martinez-Basterra, Z. et al. Wireless inertial measurement unit (IMU)-based posturography. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 276, 3057–3065 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-019-05607-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-019-05607-1

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