Dopamine-responsive pattern in tremor patients.

Abstract

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.

• Authors: Lukas L Imbach, Michael Sommerauer, Kaspar Leuenberger, Sebastian R Schreglmann, Oliver Maier, Mechtild Uhl, Roger Gassert, Christian R Baumann
• Journal: Parkinsonism & related disorders (Parkinsonism Relat Disord) Vol. 20 Issue 11 Pg. 1283-6 (Nov 2014) ISSN: 1873-5126 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 25260965 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Observational Study, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Chemical References

• Antiparkinson Agents
• Levodopa

Topics

• Adult
• Aged
• Aged, 80 and over
• Antiparkinson Agents (therapeutic use)
• Female
• Humans
• Levodopa (therapeutic use)
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Parkinson Disease (drug therapy)
• Treatment Outcome
• Tremor (drug therapy, physiopathology)