Digitizing Tablet and Fahn-Tolosa-Marin Ratings of Archimedes Spirals have Comparable Minimum Detectable Change in Essential Tremor.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Drawing Archimedes spirals is a popular and valid method of assessing action tremor in the upper limbs. We performed the first blinded comparison of Fahn-Tolosa-Marín (FTM) ratings and tablet measures of essential tremor to determine if a digitizing tablet is better than 0-4 ratings in detecting changes in essential tremor that exceed random variability in tremor amplitude.

Methods

The large and small spirals of FTM were drawn with each hand on two consecutive days by 14 men and four women (age 60±8.7 years [mean±SD]) with mild to severe essential tremor. The drawings were simultaneously digitized with a digitizing tablet. Tremor in each digitized drawing was computed with spectral analysis in an independent laboratory, blinded to the clinical ratings. The mean pe

SUBMITTER: Elble RJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5618112 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature