IEEE Trans Biomed Circuits Syst. 2008 Dec;2(4):269-79. doi: 10.1109/TBCAS.2008.926726.
Upper limb postural tremor consists of mechanical-reflex and central-neurogenic oscillations, superimposed upon a background of irregular fluctuations in muscle force. Muscle spindles play key-roles in the information flow to supra-spinal and spinal generators. Oscillations were delivered using a new generation portable myohaptic device, called ldquowristalyzer,rdquo taking into account the ergonomy of upper limbs and allowing a fine adjustment to each configuration of upper limb segments. The nominal torque of the first generation device is 4 Nm, with a maximal rotation velocity of 300 degrees/s and a range of motion of plusmn45 degrees. Reliability was assessed in basal condition and during loading conditions. We assessed the effects of the addition of inertia on postural tremor of the finger in a group of 26 neurological patients and the effects of wrist oscillations upon contralateral postural tremor in 6 control subjects and in 7 neurological patients exhibiting a postural tremor. Patients showed two different behaviors in response to inertia and exhibited an increased variability of postural tremor during fast oscillations (13.3 Hz). One patient with overactivity of the olivocerebellar pathways exhibited a drop in the peak frequency of more than 20%. The relative power of the 8-12 Hz subband was significantly higher in controls both in basal condition and during oscillations (p = 0.028 and p = 0.015, respectively). The second generation wristalyzer allows to investigate the effects of mechanical oscillations up to frequency of 50 Hz. This mechatronic device can assess the responsiveness of tremor generators to stimulation of muscle spindles and biomechanical loading. Potential applications are the monitoring of dysmetria under various inertial or damping conditions, the assessment of rigidity in Parkinson's disease and the characterization of voluntary muscle force.
上肢姿势性震颤由机械反射和中枢神经源性振荡组成，叠加在肌肉力不规则波动的背景上。肌梭在向脊髓上和脊髓发生器传递信息方面发挥着关键作用。使用一种称为“腕分析仪”的新一代便携式肌动觉设备来产生振荡，考虑到上肢的人体工程学，并允许对上肢各节段的每个构型进行精细调整。第一代设备的名义扭矩为 4 Nm，最大旋转速度为 300 度/秒，运动范围为正负 45 度。在基础条件和加载条件下评估了可靠性。我们评估了惯性对 26 例神经科患者手指姿势性震颤的影响，以及腕部振荡对 6 例对照者和 7 例表现出姿势性震颤的神经科患者对侧姿势性震颤的影响。患者对惯性有两种不同的反应，并且在快速振荡（13.3 Hz）期间表现出姿势性震颤的变异性增加。一名橄榄小脑通路活动过度的患者表现出超过 20%的峰值频率下降。在基础状态和振荡期间，对照组的 8-12 Hz 子带的相对功率均显著更高（p = 0.028 和 p = 0.015）。第二代腕分析仪允许研究机械振荡对高达 50 Hz 频率的影响。这种机电设备可以评估震颤发生器对肌梭刺激和生物力学加载的反应性。潜在的应用包括在各种惯性或阻尼条件下监测运动失调、评估帕金森病中的僵硬和描述自愿肌肉力量。
