Disease Severity Index in Parkinson’s Disease Based on Self-Organizing Maps

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative condition whose prevalence has significantly increased. This work proposes the development of a severity index to classify patients from symptoms, mainly motor ones, using an Artificial Neuronal Network (ANN) trained by the Self-Organizing Maps (SOMs) algorithm. The FOX Insight database was used, which offers data in the form of questionnaires answered by patients or caregivers from all over the world, with information regarding this pathology. After pre-processing the data, a set of 597 questionnaires containing 28 defined questions was selected. The symptoms were individually analyzed after mapping and divided into four classes. In class 1, most symptoms were not present. In class 2, the presence of certain symptoms demonstrated early milestones of the disease. In class 3, symptoms related to the patient’s mobility, in particular pain, stand out among the most reported. In class 4, the intense presence of all symptoms is observed. To test the tool, data were used from some of these patients, who answered the same questionnaire at different times (simulating medical appointments). The presented severity index to classify patients allowed identifying the current stage of the disease allowing the follow-up. This AI-based decision-support tool can help medical professionals to predict the evolution of Parkinson’s disease, which can result in longer life quality of patients, in terms of symptoms and medication requirements.