Adult onset asymmetric upper limb tremor misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s disease: A clinical and electrophysiological study

Approximately 10% of subjects thought clinically to have early Parkinson’s disease (PD) have normal dopaminergic functional imaging (SWEDDs – Scans Without Evidence of Dopaminergic Deficit). SWEDDs are a heterogeneous group. Here we aimed to delineate clinical and electrophysiological characteristics of a distinct subgroup of SWEDDs patients from PD and to clarify the underlying pathophysiology of this subgroup as a form of parkinsonism or dystonia. Therefore we compared clinical details of 25 patients referred with a diagnosis of tremor-dominant PD but with normal DaT SPECT scans (SWEDDs) with 12 tremor-dominant PD patients with abnormal DaT SPECT scans. We performed tremor analysis using accelerometry in the following patients with 1) SWEDDs, 2) PD, 3) primary segmental dystonia with dystonic limb tremor and 4) essential tremor (ET). We used transcranial magnetic stimulation with a facilitatory paired associative stimulation (PAS) paradigm to test if sensorimotor plasticity in SWEDDs resembled the pattern seen in PD, dystonia or ET. Although PD and SWEDDs patients shared several clinical features, the lack of true bradykinesia, occurrence of dystonia, and position- and task-specificity of tremor favoured a diagnosis of SWEDDs, whereas re-emergent tremor, true fatiguing or decrement, good response to dopaminergic drugs as well as presence of nonmotor symptoms made PD more likely. Basic tremor parameters overlapped between SWEDDs, PD, segmental dystonia and ET. However, a combination of re-emergent tremor and highest tremor amplitude in the resting condition was characteristic of PD tremor, while SWEDDs, dystonia and ET subjects had the highest tremor amplitude during action. Both SWEDDs and segmental dystonia patients exhibited an exaggerated pattern of sensorimotor plasticity in response to the PAS paradigm, with spread of excitation to an adjacent hand muscle. In contrast, PD patients showed no response to PAS, and the response of ET patients was no different from controls. Taken together, these results may help differentiate these SWEDDs patients from PD and support our hypothesis that adult-onset dystonia is the underlying diagnosis in this sub-group of patients with SWEDDs.