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 | Volume 12, Number 4 (october- november 2007) |  | |
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 | Quantitative Measurement of Hand’s Action Tremor in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis and the Effects of Thalamic Deep Brain Stimulation |  |
 | | Author(s): Esteki A * and Hodgson T | | Associate Prof., Dept. of Medical Engineering and Physics, Shaheed Beheshti Medical University aesteki@sbmu.ac.ir | | Study Type: Original | Subject: Medicine | | | Article abstract: | | Background: One of the consequences of Multiple Sclerosis is action tremor which significantly reduces the patient’s quality of life. Quantitative effect of Thalamic Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is a known method to reduce this effect. The aim of this study was to quantitatively measure the action tremor in such patients, alomg with studying the effect of DBS on it.
Materials and Methods: A video tracking system was used to trace an infrared marker on the tip of the index finger. Both hands of seven patients and six healthy participants were tested for three times. Subjects were asked to directly move their examined hand in a come and go pattern from a near to a far marker attached on a table, for several times. Patients performed the test in two different settings, once with their stimulator on (DBS On) and anothoer time with their stimulator off (DBS Off). "Deviation from direct path" and "Cumulative power" were considered as time and frequency domain indicators of hand’s tremor, respectively.
Results: "Deviation from direct path" is significantly lower in healthy subjects compared to that that of patients (P<0.001). This value was less in patients with DBS On than patients with DBS Off (P<0.02), showing an overall-positive effect of DBS in reducing the hand’s action tremor. Same results, but with less significancy, were found for "Cumulative power" (P~0.05). For one patient both of measurements did not reveal a significant change, after turning the DBS on. For another one, the DBS-On mode had an adverse effect so that it was increasing his action tremor.
Conclusion: "Deviation from direct path" was found to be an appropriate indicator of action tremor in patients with Multiple Sclerosis, and Thalamic Deep Brain Stimulation, therefore, is an effective treatment for reduction of action tremor.
| | | Keywords: Background: One of the consequences of Multiple Sclerosis is action tremor which significantly reduces the patient’s quality of life. Quantitative effect of Thalamic Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is a known method to reduce this effect. The aim of this s, | |
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