The “Melting” Spoon

People with Parkinson’s disease experience difficulties eating. Occasionally, they will suddenly stop eating and are unable to start again (freezing and akinesia), until they are gently reminded to start eating again, by using some sort of signal or stimulus. Freezing cannot be predicted, so a tool is needed to help combat freezing when eating.We have observed a patient at ARC San Joaquin who freezes up often and continually over the course of a meal and must be told every few seconds by a caretaker to continue to eat. Through our study of the patient, our proposed solution is an attachment for the handle of any standard fork or spoon that will detect a lack of motion and set off a stimulus, in this case a vibration. The vibration is to let the user know that they must start eating again. This removable attachment will contain an electric motor, accelerometer, on/off switch, micro controller and a battery. The microcontroller will monitor the output from the accelerometer and create the appropriate outputs to the electric motor.The current model shows to be very promising. Preliminary results show that the accelerometer is able to detect a lack of motion occurring for more than two seconds. Upon this detection, the microcontroller will run the vibrator in intervals of 5 seconds. The vibration will stop once motion is detected again. This model is not aesthetically ready for the public, but work is being done to get everything into a presentable product

The “Melting” Spoon

People with Parkinson’s disease experience difficulties eating. Occasionally, they will suddenly stop eating and are unable to start again (freezing and akinesia), until they are gently reminded to start eating again, by using some sort of signal or stimulus. Freezing cannot be predicted, so a tool is needed to help combat freezing when eating.We have observed a patient at ARC San Joaquin who freezes up often and continually over the course of a meal and must be told every few seconds by a caretaker to continue to eat. Through our study of the patient, our proposed solution is an attachment for the handle of any standard fork or spoon that will detect a lack of motion and set off a stimulus, in this case a vibration. The vibration is to let the user know that they must start eating again. This removable attachment will contain an electric motor, accelerometer, on/off switch, micro controller and a battery. The microcontroller will monitor the output from the accelerometer and create the appropriate outputs to the electric motor.The current model shows to be very promising. Preliminary results show that the accelerometer is able to detect a lack of motion occurring for more than two seconds. Upon this detection, the microcontroller will run the vibrator in intervals of 5 seconds. The vibration will stop once motion is detected again. This model is not aesthetically ready for the public, but work is being done to get everything into a presentable product

Characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital with and without respiratory symptoms

Background: COVID-19 is primarily known as a respiratory illness; however, many patients present to hospital without respiratory symptoms. The association between non-respiratory presentations of COVID-19 and outcomes remains unclear. We investigated risk factors and clinical outcomes in patients with no respiratory symptoms (NRS) and respiratory symptoms (RS) at hospital admission. Methods: This study describes clinical features, physiological parameters, and outcomes of hospitalised COVID-19 patients, stratified by the presence or absence of respiratory symptoms at hospital admission. RS patients had one or more of: cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, runny nose or wheezing; while NRS patients did not. Results: Of 178,640 patients in the study, 86.4 % presented with RS, while 13.6 % had NRS. NRS patients were older (median age: NRS: 74 vs RS: 65) and less likely to be admitted to the ICU (NRS: 36.7 % vs RS: 37.5 %). NRS patients had a higher crude in-hospital case-fatality ratio (NRS 41.1 % vs. RS 32.0 %), but a lower risk of death after adjusting for confounders (HR 0.88 [0.83-0.93]). Conclusion: Approximately one in seven COVID-19 patients presented at hospital admission without respiratory symptoms. These patients were older, had lower ICU admission rates, and had a lower risk of in-hospital mortality after adjusting for confounders