Kinetic tremor in Parkinson's disease--an underrated symptom

J Neural Transm (Vienna). 2006 Jul;113(7):845-53. doi: 10.1007/s00702-005-0354-9. Epub 2006 Jan 30.

Abstract

Since the first description of the disorder which we now call "Parkinson's Disease" (PD) much has changed not only because of new therapeutic possibilities. Initially only the rest tremor was described. Today it is generally accepted that PD can be accompanied by different forms of tremor. Nevertheless the kinetic tremor is hardly examined and no attention is paid to it in clinical rating scales although it can already be found in old published drawings of PD-patients. To date instrumented investigations do not capture the most common kinetic tremor of PD that seems to be frequent under everyday life conditions. In order to assess the significance of kinetic tremor in PD, tremor during a spiral drawing task was investigated in an open study involving 870 patients. The results indicate that a combination of rest, postural and kinetic tremors constitute the most frequent tremor constellation in PD.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Arm / innervation
  • Arm / physiopathology*
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Muscle, Skeletal / innervation
  • Muscle, Skeletal / physiopathology*
  • Neurologic Examination
  • Parkinson Disease / diagnosis*
  • Parkinson Disease / physiopathology*
  • Predictive Value of Tests
  • Psychomotor Performance / physiology
  • Tremor / diagnosis*
  • Tremor / etiology
  • Tremor / physiopathology*