Development and validation of a computer based system for the diagnosis of General Movements of normal and neurologically impaired infants

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Hartmut Dickhaus, Prof. Dr. Joachim Pietz

Project Partner:
Center for Child and Adolescent Medicine, University Hospital Heidelberg
Department of Medical Informatics, University Hospital Heidelberg

Cooperations:

• Department of Neurology – Developmental Neurology (Prof. Dr. M. Hadders-Algra), University of Groningen, Netherlands
• Clinic for Neonatalogy KHK IV (Prof. Dr. J. Pöschl) Center for Child and Adolescent Medicine, Heidelberg

Funding: Dietmar-Hopp-Stiftung

Brief description:
Infantile Cerebral Palsy (ICP) is a major impairment of the motoric system. It appears in approx. 2 of 1000 term born children and in approx. 7 of 100 extremely premature children as the consequence of an early damage of the central nervous system.
Furthermore newborns and premature infants frequently show transient neurological conspicuities in the first months of life. These conspicuities can seem like an emerging ICP in the common clinical examinations, but they degenerate completely and do not require therapy. It is not possible to make an early valid diagnosis by the means of already introduced methods (clinical-neurological and neurophysiological diagnostics, imaging, etc.) in the first year of life, but it is of great importance with regard to an early and specific therapy. The “General Movement” (GM) analysis, which was first described by Prechtl and Einspieler, is conducted on the basis of video recordings in the first months of life of the infant. This analysis can today be applied as a meaningful procedure for the early diagnostic of cerebral movement impairments. However this method is so far bound to the judgement of few experts and due to the subjective evaluation of video recordings it demands a high effort for training and the analysis of the recordings.
It is the aim of this project to develop and evaluate a computer-based system for the differentiated diagnosis support which recognizes normal and pathologic patterns and formulates specific advices for the diagnosis. For this purpose the general movements of normal and neurologically conspicuous infants shall be recorded with a tracking system (3D Guidance™, Ascension Technology). Discriminating parameters will be extracted from the trajectories. These parameters will be the basis for the automated diagnostic.

Project Duration: 2007-2010

Project Staff: Dominik Karch, Prof. Dr. H. Dickhaus

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Attachment of sensors on the arm of an infant

 

 

Calculated 3D-model of an arm an a leg