Publication
Dopamine-responsive pattern in tremor patients
Journal Paper/Review - Sep 16, 2014
Imbach Lukas L, Sommerauer Michael, Leuenberger Kaspar, Schreglmann S, Maier Oliver, Uhl Mechtild, Gassert Roger, Baumann Christian R
Units
PubMed
Doi
Citation
Type
Journal
Publication Date
Issn Electronic
Pages
Brief description/objective
BACKGROUND
Diagnosis and treatment of tremor are largely based on clinical assessment. Whereas in some patients tremor may respond to dopaminergic treatment, in general l-Dopa response to tremor varies considerably. The aim of this study was to predict l-Dopa response by accelerometry.
METHODS
We included 60 tremor patients and measured harmonic oscillations by accelerometry. In addition to neurological assessment, we performed l-Dopa challenge tests and the individual tremor response was compared to the amount of harmonic oscillations.
RESULTS
We found a strong correlation between harmonic oscillations and clinical l-Dopa response. Similarly, harmonic oscillations were significantly greater in patients with subjective tremor reduction upon l-Dopa administration.
CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that harmonic oscillations are a measure for l-Dopa response to tremor irrespective of the underlying disease. Because of the observational character of the study, any causal relation remains speculative. Nevertheless, we propose a novel, non-invasive approach to predict l-Dopa response in tremor patients.