Wearable sensors show promise for monitoring disease severity in Friedreich ataxia

Wearable sensors offer a promising, objective way to monitor motor dysfunction and assess disease severity in Friedreich ataxia (FRDA), improving the accuracy of predictions compared to traditional clinical assessments alone, according to a study.

Researchers tracked 39 patients with FRDA remotely over 7 days using wearable sensors to monitor physical activity and upper extremity function. They compared sensor data with clinical assessments, such as mFARS and FA-ADL scores, and biomarkers of disease severity, including GAA repeat length and frataxin (FXN) levels. Analysis found significant correlations between sensor-derived metrics and both clinical outcomes and biological markers.

Machine learning models integrating sensor data, demographic information, and biomarkers showed enhanced accuracy in predicting disease severity. Models including sensor-derived metrics improved performance by 1.5 to 2 times in terms of explained variance (R²).

Reference
Mishra RK, Nunes AS, Enriquez A, et al. At-home wearable-based monitoring predicts clinical measures and biological biomarkers of disease severity in Friedreich’s Ataxia. Commun Med (Lond). 2024;4(1):217. doi: 10.1038/s43856-024-00653-1. PMID: 39468362.