• Original article (Clinical research) • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Value of acceleration and surface electromyogram signals in discriminating tremor between Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor

HUANG Fei-fei1, 3, ZHANG Bin2, WU Dan-hong3, ZHANG Ding-guo2, LIU Jun1   

  1. 1.Department of Neurology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China; 2. State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China; 3. Department of Neurology, Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 201999, China

  • Online:2017-01-28 Published:2017-01-19
  • Supported by:

    National Natural Science Foundation of China，81171202，81471287

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Abstract:

Objective · To investigate the clinical value of acceleration and surface electromyogram (sEMG) signals in discriminating tremor between Parkinson’s disease (PD) and essential tremor (ET). Methods · Twenty-four patients with Parkinson’s disease and 20 patients with ET were enrolled and tested with a new posture for tremor measurement (i.e, Posture 1), which the results were compared with those of anothertraditional posture (i.e, Posture 2). The comparing characteristics included amplitude, frequency and burst pattern of tremor. Results · As regarding amplitude of tremor, for Posture 1, the confidence intervel of mean value of tremor amplitude of PD and ET in the log scale was 0.75-2.40 and 0.81-3.11 with significant diffierence (F=51.1, P=0.000), respectively. While for Posture 2, there was 0.92-3.38 and 1.43-2.96 between PD and ET, respectively, without significant difference (F=0.14, P=0.709). For tremor frequency, there were significant difference between both postures (F1=97.2, P1=0.000; F2=15.2, P2=0.000). However, the coefficient
for discrimination increased by 148.1% from 0.27 to 0.67 when Posture 2 comparing to Posture 1. As for burst pattern of sEMG signals, there was no significant difference between PD and ET in sychronous or asychronous muscle activation pattern in both postures. Conclusion · The new posture for
tremor measurement could improve tremor discrimination between PD and ET.

Key words: Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, surface electromyogram, acceleration