Quantification of tremor severity with a mobile tremor pen.

Background: An objective evaluation of tremor severity is necessary to document the course of disease, the efficacy of treatment, or interventions in clinical trials. Most available objective quantification devices are complex, immobile, or not validated.

New Method: We used the TREMITAS-System that comprises a pen-shaped sensor for tremor quantification.

Minor Structural Differences in the Cervical Spine Between Patients With Cervical Dystonia and Age-Matched Healthy Controls.

Cervical dystonia is the most common form of focal dystonia. The frequency and pattern of degenerative changes of the cervical spine in patients with cervical dystonia and their relation to clinical symptoms remain unclear as no direct comparison to healthy controls has been performed yet. Here, we used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate (1) whether structural abnormalities of the cervical spine are more common in patients with cervical dystonia compared to age-matched healthy controls, (2) if there are clinical predictors for abnormalities on MRI, and (3) to calculate the inter-rater reliability of the respective radiological scales.

Nigral iron deposition in common tremor disorders.

Objective: We investigated R2* relaxation rates as a marker of iron content in the substantia nigra in patients with common tremor disorders and explored their diagnostic properties.

Methods: Mean nigral R2* rates were measured in 40 patients with tremor-dominant Parkinson's disease (PD), 15 with tremor in dystonia, 25 with essential tremor, and 25 healthy controls.

Results: Tremor-dominant PD patients had significantly higher nigral R2* values (34.

Multi-ethnic genome-wide association study for atrial fibrillation.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) affects more than 33 million individuals worldwide and has a complex heritability. We conducted the largest meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for AF to date, consisting of more than half a million individuals, including 65,446 with AF. In total, we identified 97 loci significantly associated with AF, including 67 that were novel in a combined-ancestry analysis, and 3 that were novel in a European-specific analysis.

Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping in Parkinson's Disease.

Background: Quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) and R2* relaxation rate mapping have demonstrated increased iron deposition in the substantia nigra of patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the findings in other subcortical deep gray matter nuclei are converse and the sensitivity of QSM and R2* for morphological changes and their relation to clinical measures of disease severity has so far been investigated only sparsely.

Methods: The local ethics committee approved this study and all subjects gave written informed consent.

A priori collaboration in population imaging: The Uniform Neuro-Imaging of Virchow-Robin Spaces Enlargement consortium.

Introduction: Virchow-Robin spaces (VRS), or perivascular spaces, are compartments of interstitial fluid enclosing cerebral blood vessels and are potential imaging markers of various underlying brain pathologies. Despite a growing interest in the study of enlarged VRS, the heterogeneity in rating and quantification methods combined with small sample sizes have so far hampered advancement in the field.

Methods: The Uniform Neuro-Imaging of Virchow-Robin Spaces Enlargement (UNIVRSE) consortium was established with primary aims to harmonize rating and analysis (www.

Validation of "laboratory-supported" criteria for functional (psychogenic) tremor.

Background: In a small group of patients, we have previously shown that a combination of electrophysiological tests was able to distinguish functional (psychogenic) tremor and organic tremor with excellent sensitivity and specificity.

Objectives: This study aims to validate an electrophysiological test battery as a tool to diagnose patients with functional tremor with a "laboratory-supported" level of certainty.

Methods: For this prospective data collection study, we recruited 38 new patients with functional tremor (mean age 37.

Intact emotion recognition and experience but dysfunctional emotion regulation in idiopathic Parkinson's disease.

Background: A specific non-motor impairment in Parkinson's disease (PD) concerns difficulties to accurately identify facial emotions. Findings are numerous but very inconsistent, ranging from general discrimination deficits to problems for specific emotions up to no impairment at all. By contrast, only a few studies exist about emotion experience, altered affective traits and states in PD.

Levodopa-responsive Holmes' Tremor Caused by a Single Inflammatory Demyelinating Lesion.

Background: Holmes' tremor is characterized by a combination of rest, postural, and kinetic tremor that is presumably caused by interruption of cerebello-thalamo-cortical and nigrostriatal pathways. Medical treatment remains unsatisfactory.

Case Report: A 16-year-old girl presented with Holmes' tremor caused by a transient midbrain abnormality on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Facial Emotion Recognition in Parkinson's Disease: An fMRI Investigation.

Background: Findings of behavioral studies on facial emotion recognition in Parkinson's disease (PD) are very heterogeneous. Therefore, the present investigation additionally used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in order to compare brain activation during emotion perception between PD patients and healthy controls.

Methods And Findings: We included 17 nonmedicated, nondemented PD patients suffering from mild to moderate symptoms and 22 healthy controls.

Role of disgust proneness in Parkinson's disease: a voxel-based morphometry study.

The knowledge about personality traits in Parkinson's disease (PD) is still limited. In particular, disgust proneness has not been investigated as well as its neuronal correlates. Although several morphometric studies demonstrated that PD is associated with gray matter volume (GMV) reduction in olfactory and gustatory regions involved in disgust processing, a possible correlation with disgust proneness has not been investigated.

Motor sequence learning and motor adaptation in primary cervical dystonia.

Motor sequence learning and motor adaptation rely on overlapping circuits predominantly involving the basal ganglia and cerebellum. Given the importance of these brain regions to the pathophysiology of primary dystonia, and the previous finding of abnormal motor sequence learning in DYT1 gene carriers, we explored motor sequence learning and motor adaptation in patients with primary cervical dystonia. We recruited 12 patients with cervical dystonia and 11 healthy controls matched for age.

Tremor associated with Klinefelter syndrome--a case series and review of the literature.

Background: Previous case series suggested a link between Klinefelter syndrome (KS) and essential tremor (ET) or an ET-like syndrome.

Methods: We investigated three KS-patients with tremor including tremor-analyzes and discuss our data in context to findings from a literature review. The clinical outcome after deep brain stimulation (DBS) is also reviewed.

Cerebellar learning distinguishes inflammatory neuropathy with and without tremor.

Objectives: This study aims to investigate if patients with inflammatory neuropathies and tremor have evidence of dysfunction in the cerebellum and interactions in sensorimotor cortex compared to nontremulous patients and healthy controls.

Methods: A prospective data collection study investigating patients with inflammatory neuropathy and tremor, patients with inflammatory neuropathy without tremor, and healthy controls on a test of cerebellar associative learning (eyeblink classical conditioning), a test of sensorimotor integration (short afferent inhibition), and a test of associative plasticity (paired associative stimulation). We also recorded tremor in the arms using accelerometry and surface EMG.