The use of wearable/portable digital sensors in Huntington's disease: A systematic review

In chronic neurological conditions, wearable/portable devices have potential as innovative tools to detect subtle early disease manifestations and disease fluctuations for the purpose of clinical diagnosis, care and therapeutic development. Huntington's disease (HD) has a unique combination of motor and non-motor features which, combined with recent and anticipated therapeutic progress, gives great potential for such devices to prove useful. The present work aims to provide a comprehensive account of the use of wearable/portable devices in HD and of what they have contributed so far. We conducted a systematic review searching MEDLINE, Embase, and IEEE Xplore. Thirty references were identified. Our results revealed large variability in the types of sensors used, study design, and the measured outcomes. Digital technologies show considerable promise for therapeutic research and clinical management of HD. However, more studies with standardized devices and harmonized protocols are needed to optimize the potential applicability of wearable/portable devices in HD.
Highlights • Wearable/portable sensors have been proposed to detect and quantify manifestations of many neurodegenerative diseases. • No systematic review so far has examined their use in Huntington's disease (HD). • This work draws a broad picture of the digital wearable-based landscape in HD. • The utility of wearables in clinical practice and therapeutic research still needs to be proved. • Collaborative efforts are needed to further investigate their clinical use in HD.