Document Detail


Differentiation and diagnosis of tremor.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  21404980     Owner:  NLM     Status:  In-Data-Review    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Tremor, an involuntary, rhythmic, oscillatory movement of a body part, is the most common movement disorder encountered in clinical practice. Rest tremors occur in a body part that is relaxed and completely supported against gravity. Action tremors occur with voluntary contraction of a muscle and can be further subdivided into postural, isometric, and kinetic tremors. All persons have low-amplitude, high-frequency physiologic tremors at rest and during action that are not reported as symptomatic. The most common pathologic tremor is essential tremor. In one-half of cases, it is transmitted in an autosomal dominant fashion, and it affects 0.4 to 6 percent of the population. More than 70 percent of patients with Parkinson disease have tremor as the presenting feature. This tremor is typically asymmetric, occurs at rest, and becomes less prominent with voluntary movement. Features consistent with psychogenic tremor are abrupt onset, spontaneous remission, changing tremor characteristics, and extinction with distraction. Other types of tremor are cerebellar, dystonic, drug- or metabolic-induced, and orthostatic. The first step in the evaluation of a patient with tremor is to categorize the tremor based on its activation condition, topographic distribution, and frequency. The diagnosis of tremor is based on clinical information obtained from a thorough history and physical examination. For particularly difficult cases, single-photon emission computed tomography to visualize the integrity of the dopaminergic pathways in the brain may be useful to diagnose Parkinson disease.
Authors:
Paul Crawford; Ethan E Zimmerman
Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article    
Journal Detail:
Title:  American family physician     Volume:  83     ISSN:  1532-0650     ISO Abbreviation:  Am Fam Physician     Publication Date:  2011 Mar 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2011-03-16     Completed Date:  -     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  1272646     Medline TA:  Am Fam Physician     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  697-702     Citation Subset:  AIM; IM    
Affiliation:
Nellis Family Medicine Residency, Nellis Air Force Base, NV, USA.
Export Citation:
APA/MLA Format     Download EndNote     Download BibTex
MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


Previous Document:  Health Maintenance in School-aged Children: Part II. Counseling Recommendations.
Next Document:  Considerations for safe use of statins: liver enzyme abnormalities and muscle toxicitiy.