Publication

Dopamine-responsive pattern in tremor patients

Journal Paper/Review - Sep 16, 2014

Units
PubMed
Doi

Citation
Imbach L, Sommerauer M, Leuenberger K, Schreglmann S, Maier O, Uhl M, Gassert R, Baumann C. Dopamine-responsive pattern in tremor patients. Parkinsonism Relat Disord 2014; 20:1283-6.
Type
Journal Paper/Review (English)
Journal
Parkinsonism Relat Disord 2014; 20
Publication Date
Sep 16, 2014
Issn Electronic
1873-5126
Pages
1283-6
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.