Premium
Sensitivity and specificity of different hand positions to assess upper limb rest tremor
Author(s) -
Wilken Miguel,
Bruno Verónica,
Rossi Malco,
Ameghino Lucía,
Deuschl Günther,
Merello Marcelo
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
movement disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.352
H-Index - 198
eISSN - 1531-8257
pISSN - 0885-3185
DOI - 10.1002/mds.27648
Subject(s) - essential tremor , rest (music) , physical medicine and rehabilitation , postural tremor , movement disorders , medicine , position (finance) , body position , lower limb , neurological disorder , physical therapy , psychology , central nervous system disease , surgery , disease , finance , economics
Background Hand position for rest tremor evaluation in PD is not standardized. We evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of different hand positions commonly used to evaluate rest tremor. Methods Twenty patients with PD and rest tremor were included as cases and 20 patients with essential tremor without rest tremor as controls. Video and accelerometric recordings were conducted in semiprone, completely prone, and with hands hanging down from armrest positions. Three movement disorder specialists rated tremor in each different position using Movement Disorder Society UPDRS items 3.17 and 3.18. Results Hands hanging showed the highest amplitude ( P = 0.004) and constancy ( P = 0.015) scores. Sensitivity and specificity analysis for each position showed the following sensitivity/specificity results: semiprone, 95%/80%; completely prone, 85%/98.33%; and hands hanging, 96.66%/63.33%, respectively. Conclusions The hands‐hanging position was shown to be the most suitable for evaluating rest tremor amplitude in PD, whereas the completely prone position proved to be more specific to detect rest tremor. The preferred hand position would depend on the purpose of the examination. © 2019 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society