Objective: To evaluate prevalence of tremor in Multiple sclerosis in Isfahan

Background:

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is demyelinating disease of central nervous system (CNS), affecting mostly young women. Tremor is a common problem in MS. Tremor can be disabling symptom and cause disability and impair quality of life of these patients.This study is the first report of prevalence of tremor in patients with MS in Iran.

Methods:

This cross-sectional study was prospectively performed on patients with Multiple Sclerosis who fulfilled following criteria; (1) definite diagnosis of MS based on McDonald 2010 criteria, (2) age between 18 to 55, (3) no other concomitant disease including Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, neuropathy, hyperthyroidism, etc. The patients were interviewed and neurologist carried out neurological examinations.Tremor was evaluated at three state of muscle activity: rest, movement during finger to nose test, and posture holding in “bat-wing position” and outstretched arm. Demographic data and clinical characteristic were collected by checklists. All data were analyzed using the SPSS 20 statistical software package.

Results:

There were 164 patients in the study, of which 32 were males (19.5 percent) and 132 were females (80.5 percent). The disease was classified as primary progressive in 12 patients, relapsing–remitting in 104 and secondary progressive with or without relapses in 48 patients. Out of 164, 113 patients had tremor, of which 23 were males and 90 females. 59.3 percent of patients affected by tremor had RRMS, 33.6 % SPMS and 7.1 % PPMS. 50 patients (30.5 %) had resting tremor, 107 (66.4 %) had action tremor and 72 (43.9 %) had intention tremor. Our data showed highly significant correlations between the presence of tremor and dysarthria, dysdiadochokinesia, dysmetria and gait abnormalities. Tremor effects on daily and some personal activity and it caused Disability

Conclusions:

We provide data demonstrating that multiple sclerosis causes various types of action tremor that vary from mild to one of the most severe forms of tremor encountered in clinical practice.  As we showed in this study, tremor is one of the most common problems in patients with MS. So, prevention and treatment of this problem can improve patient’s quality of life.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/prevalence-of-tremor-in-multiple-sclerosis-in-isfahan-iran/