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Detecting Parkinson's Disease Through Speech Analysis

Automatic Acoustic Speech Analysis and REM Sleep Behaviour Disorder for Detecting Subjects at High Risk for Parkinson's Disease and Other Alpha-synucleinopathies

Status
UNKNOWN
Phases
NA
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT03133611
Enrollment
350
Registered
2017-04-28
Start date
2017-04-01
Completion date
2020-12-31
Last updated
2019-08-09

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Parkinson Disease, REM Sleep Behavior Disorder

Keywords

Speech disorder, Acoustic analysis, Dysarthria

Brief summary

Speech is an important indicator of motor function and movement coordination and can be extremely sensitive to involvement in the course of neurologic diseases. The aim of this project is to discover for the first time using simple speech recording and high end pattern analysis preclinical stages of disabling central nervous system disorders including Parkinson's disease and other alpha-synucleinopathies in at high risk patients with REM sleep behavior disorder and thus provide one essential prerequisite for trials on REM sleep behavior disorder with preventive therapy.

Detailed description

Seven centers of excellence in sleep research will investigate speech and other clinical symptoms in more than 100 subjects with REM sleep behavior disorder. Analyses of a number of unique speech dimensions based upon three fundamental categories of simple speaking tasks will be used to search for specific prodromal alterations in speech patterns in REM sleep behavior disorder, compared to age- and gender-matched patients with early Parkinson's disease and healthy control subjects. Robust algorithms allowing automated speech analysis will be developed and optimized through English, German, French, Czech and Italian languages. Early motor dysfunction strongly predicts Parkinson's disease and other alpha-synucleinopathies. In this regard, vocal assessment has intriguing potential advances as is non-invasive, inexpensive, simple to administer and scalable to large population with possibility to perform recordings remotely, even by telephone from patients' home. Speech analysis may serve as a simple tool to screen large populations for the risk to develop Parkinson's disease. If speech impairment appears to be a strong biomarker of early motor dysfunction, the screening of speech changes may improve stratification for future neuroprotective therapies for Parkinson's disease and other synucleinopathies.

Interventions

OTHERSpeech assessment

Each subject will undergo short non-invasive speech assessment lasting approximately 15 minutes that will be recorded using microphone.

OTHERRoutine clinical assessment

Volunteers who enroll in the study will undergo various assessments lasting about 2 hours, including neurological examination of both motor and non-motor skills, autonomic testing and cognitive testing.

Sponsors

General University Hospital, Prague
CollaboratorOTHER
University Hospital, Montpellier
CollaboratorOTHER
Mayo Clinic
CollaboratorOTHER
McGill University Health Centre/Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre
CollaboratorOTHER
Medical University Innsbruck
CollaboratorOTHER
San Raffaele University Hospital, Italy
CollaboratorOTHER
Philipps University Marburg
CollaboratorOTHER
Czech Technical University in Prague
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
DIAGNOSTIC
Masking
NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
50 Years to 80 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

for subjects with Parkinson's disease (PD): * Diagnosed based on the MDS Clinical Diagnostic Criteria for Parkinson's Disease including the presence of bradykinesia in combination with either rest tremor, rigidity, or both; * Hoehn & Yahr stage 1-2 in the defined OFF state; * Disease duration from diagnosis \< 5 years; * No motor fluctuations or dyskinesias; * On stable dose of medication in last four weeks; * Onset of PD after 50 years; * No history of communication or neurological disorders unrelated to PD; * Not currently involved in any speech therapy; Inclusion Criteria for subjects with REM Sleep Behaviour Disorder (RBD): * Fulfill criteria for RBD based on polysomnography according to the standard International Classification of Sleep Disorders diagnostic criteria, 3rd edition; * Onset of RBD after 50 years; * No history of communication or neurological disorders. Inclusion Criteria for healthy control subjects: * No history of communication or neurological disorders, parasomnias and other sleep disorders with important severity; * No regular benzodiazepines, hypnotics and melatonin intake.

Exclusion criteria

(for all the arms) Inability to speak and read a text aloud.

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Motor Speech Disorder Examination (MSDE)Within one session (15 minutes)Quantitative acoustic assessment of several deviant speech dimensions connected with phonatory, articulatory, and prosodic abnormalities in hypokinetic dysarthria of Parkinson's disease.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
MDS Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS)Within one session (30 minutes)The most commonly used scale for the clinical evaluation of Parkinson's disease assessing variety of motor and non-motor symptoms.
SCOPA-AUTWithin one session (30 minutes)Scale for assessment of autonomic dysfunction in Parkinson's disease.
Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA)Within one session (15 minutes)Scale for assessment of several cognitive domains.

Countries

Austria, Canada, Czechia, France, Germany, Italy, United States

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026