Gloves aim to reduce Parkinson's tremors

Gloves that can automatically reduce tremors associated with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) have been developed by doctors at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand.

The gloves aim to allow PD patients to enjoy social life and reduce side effects from medication.

Tremors, slowness and stiffness are the noticeable symptoms of patients with PD, especially hand tremors, which are found in 70% of patients. Currently, there are 10 million PD patients worldwide.

Parkinson’s Disease is treated with a variety of medications, although they typically don’t reduce all the tremors. Some patients with severe tremors may require brain surgery.

Researchers at the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, led by Prof Dr Roongroj Bhidayasiri and Asst Prof Dr Onanong Phokaewvarangkul, researched and developed the prototype of tremor-reducing Parkinson’s gloves in 2014; it was patented as a portable tremor-measuring and -reducing device using electrical muscle stimulation in 2017.

The team has now succeeded in developing the fifth generation of the gloves which are lightweight, easy to wear, effective and more affordable.

Image caption: 5th Generation tremor-reducing Parkinson’s gloves.  Image credit: Chulalongkorn University.

“The tremor-reducing Parkinson’s gloves are the first medical device that can help reduce tremors in the hands of PD patients through automatic electric stimulation of the hand muscles without having to increase their medication and reduce the risk of brain surgery,” Phokaewvarangkul said.

“As we move further into the aging society, the number of PD patients will only increase. Our estimation predicts an increase of 2–3 times in the future.”

The Parkinson’s gloves work via Bluetooth connection and have three main components:

• a glove with the muscle stimulator installed
• a control panel
• a mobile phone app.
   

The app controls the device and stores data about the tremors and stimulation for analysis. Phokaewvarangkul explained that the automatic tremor-reducing Parkinson’s gloves operate by combining two systems as follows:

• Detecting and measuring Parkinson’s tremors using an accelerometer and a gyroscope, which are highly accurate and low in error risk. Parkinson’s tremors measure at 4–7 Hz.
• Suppressing tremors with electrical stimulation of the hand muscles — when the sensors detect Parkinson’s-specific tremors, they will transmit a signal via Bluetooth to the muscle stimulator to release an electric current that will reduce the tremors from a small battery. The muscle stimulator uses the physiotherapy standard resistance, frequency and electric current, which are safe for use with patients.
   

The innovation was awarded the National Innovation Award in Society and Environment (Private Sector) 2022 from the National Innovation Agency and the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation in Thailand.

“In the future, the team plans to develop the gloves to be smaller and better looking. They won’t look like a medical device, but more like an accessory or part of the outfit. Still, they will retain the efficiency in reducing tremors, the stability of electrical current and the ease of data upload,” Phokaewvarangkul said.

“More development will include detection and reduction of tremors in other parts of the body, such as the legs, as well as tremors stemming from other diseases.”

The gloves are being tested by patients at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital as the researchers seek investment to expand into commercial production.

Top image credit: iStock.com/Alexey Koza