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. 2020 Jan 29;10(1):1436.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-58363-2.

The Prevalence of Dystonic Tremor and Tremor Associated with Dystonia in Patients with Cervical Dystonia

Lenka Hvizdošová  1 , Martin Nevrlý  2 , Pavel Otruba  2 , Petr Hluštík  2 , Petr Kaňovský  2 , Jana Zapletalová  3
Affiliations

The Prevalence of Dystonic Tremor and Tremor Associated with Dystonia in Patients with Cervical Dystonia

Lenka Hvizdošová et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

The link between dystonia and tremor has been known for decades, but the question of whether they are two separate illnesses or just different manifestations of one disease with the same pathophysiological background remains unanswered. We distinguish two types of tremor in dystonia: dystonic tremor (DT), which appears on the body part affected by dystonia, and tremor associated with dystonia (TAWD), which appears in locations where the dystonia does not occur. In this study, the frequency of occurrence of different forms of tremor was determined by clinical examination in a group of adult-onset isolated cervical dystonia (CD) patients treated with regular local injections of botulinum toxin A in our department. In total, 120 patients were included in the study, of which 70 (58.3%) had DT of the head. TAWD was, in all 14 cases (11.7%), observed on the upper limbs, in the form of static or intentional tremor. The aim of this study was to point out the presence of TAWD as one of the clinical signs of CD. DT occurred in more than half of the patients and appears to be a relatively common part of the clinical picture in patients with CD.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Tree diagram showing prevalence of different types of tremor in patient group.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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