A new tool for neuromuscolar disease pre-diagnosis

A new electronic diagnosis device for neuromuscular disease investigation, based on handwritten text analysis, is presented in this paper. More specifically, a new non-invasive tool for the diagnosis of a degenerative disability is here proposed. It is useful to follow the progress of a neuromuscular disease, not only to evaluate it in the early stages, but also to follow the changes related to therapy effectiveness. In fact, by tracking the disease a twofold benefit can be achieved: first for patients from the clinical point of view and second from the pharmaceutical point of view, by monitoring the effectiveness of the treatment. Specifically, in this paper the measure of local stability in handwritten words, by using the Pearson coefficient, is adopted, in order to detect stability in the handwriting process. The experimental results of a comparison between healthy people and patients affected by Alzheimer’s disease are reported in the paper.