Replicability and Uniqueness of Tremor Characteristics in Parkinson’s Disease

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2019-07-01
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en
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Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a heterogeneous disease characterized by bradykinesia, rigidity, and resting tremor. While bradykinesia and rigidity have a consistent response to mediation, resting tremor has not. Research into the causes of heterogeneous responses of tremor to medication is necessary, as patients describe tremor as their second most bothersome symptoms, and clinicians are currently forced to follow a trial-and-error approach when treating this symptom. Therefore, this study aims at identifying replicable and unique tremor-characteristics that might be used to identify subpopulations of PD to predict the most suitable treatment. We measured patients with PD on two occasions. We assessed replicability of the clinical severity of the tremor, frequency and amplitude in rest and during cognitivecoactivation, the spatial correlation within the tremor-amplitude related network, and the stability of the peak activation location within this network. We observed high replicability of clinical- and accelerometry characteristics. Spatial correlations and Euclidean distances were not replicable between days. We conclude that clinical- and accelerometry parameters might be suitable for identification of subgroups of patients, but our fMRI-derived parameters seem uninformative for clinical practice.
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Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen