Study on the 8 Hz tremor frequency related to dopamine level in parkinsonian patients

The 3 major symptoms of Parkinson disease are tremor, akinesia and rigidity. These symptoms are caused by depletion of dopamine in the substantia nigra striatum system. The L-dopa and acetylcholine have been adopted to the standard treatment for Parkinson disease. But the use of these drugs yield undesirable side effects. The authors propose a biofeedback system for the treatment of tremor. For this therapy, they investigated tremor frequency, dopamine level, the Yahr grade and duration of parkinsonian symptoms. The authors studied the relationship between tremor frequency and dopamine level. Tremor was measured by a accelerometer fixed on the bony part of patients thumb. After the measurement, blood was collected at the same time. Dopamine was separated with centrifugation, filtration and reverse phase HPLC. The absorbance was monitored at a wavelength of 283 nm. As a result, the authors found a negative relationship between 8 Hz tremor and dopamine level. The correlation coefficient was 0.909.