Clinical Neurophysiology Practice (Jan 2020)

Tremoroton, a new free online platform for tremor analysis

  • Felipe Vial,
  • Patrick McGurrin,
  • Thomas Osterholt,
  • Debra Ehrlich,
  • Dietrich Haubenberger,
  • Mark Hallett

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5
pp. 30 – 34

Abstract

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Objective: The electrophysiological classification of tremors can be a key element in the diagnosis and can facilitate treatment of a patient with tremor; however, the ability to conduct electrophysiological studies of tremor is not widely available. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a free online platform for tremor analysis. Methods: An online platform for tremor analysis was developed using “R” language; called “Tremoroton”. For validation, we compared the frequency estimation of the tremor obtained with Tremoroton compared with a commercially available software in a cohort of 20 patients (10 with essential tremor and 10 with Parkinson diagnosis), comparing the activity recorded on the accelerometer, extensor carpi radialis and flexor carpi radialis EMG. An intraclass correlation coefficient was used for the comparison. Results: The final version of tremoroton is now online. It allows reading up to 6 channels, and will do time, frequency, time-frequency analysis and calculate coherence. We demonstrated a high correlation in frequency measurements (0.97 (0.945–0.984, 95% IC) for the accelerometers, 0.98 (0.977–0.994, 95% IC) for the extensor carpi radialis EMG, and 0.99 (0.987–0.997, 95% IC) for the flexor carpi radialis EMG) when compared to a commercial software. Conclusion: We were able to develop and validate a free online platform for tremor analysis. Significance: Making this tool available should help expanding tremor analysis techniques from research to the clinical setting.

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