Graphical Tasks to Measure Upper Limb Function in Patients With Parkinson's Disease: Validity and Response to Dopaminergic Medication.

The most widely used method to assess motor functioning in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients is the unified Parkinson's disease rating scale-III (UPDRS-III). The UPDRS-III has limited ability to detect subtle changes in motor symptoms. Alternatively, graphical tasks can be used to provide objective measures of upper limb motor dysfunction.

Standardized handwriting to assess bradykinesia, micrographia and tremor in Parkinson's disease.

Objective: To assess whether standardized handwriting can provide quantitative measures to distinguish patients diagnosed with Parkinson's disease from age- and gender-matched healthy control participants.

Design: Exploratory study. Pen tip trajectories were recorded during circle, spiral and line drawing and repeated character 'elelelel' and sentence writing, performed by Parkinson patients and healthy control participants.