Long-Term Measurement of Tremor

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Abstract
To account for the fluctuating and contextdependent nature of tremor, the method of ambulatory long‐term electromyography (EMG) was developed for quantification of this symptom. It is based on successive evaluation of 15‐s intervals by using a fast Fourier transformation (FFT). The standard results obtained are (a) tremor occurrence, a measure of how many intervals contain tremor; (b) mean tremor intensity; and (v) mean tremor frequency. This new method fulfills the so‐called “test criteria” such as reliability, validity, sensitivity, and specificity for tremor quantification in essential tremor (ET) and Parkinson's disease (PD). In addition, we developed a method of determining the antagonist activation pattern by using cross‐correlation analysis, also based on the long‐term approach. This allows differentiation between ET and PD with a high sensitivity and a high interrater reliability. We conclude that long‐term EMG is useful for both quantification and differentiation of tremor.

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