Pain & Central Nervous System Week via NewsEdge Corporation :

2005 JUL 25 - (NewsRx.com) -- "Fast tapping" tests are not suitable for use in the clinical assessment of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients.

"In addition to clinical rating scales, instrumental methods are employed frequently for assessment of performance or motor deficits" in PD, neurologists in Germany explained.

"Many studies have analyzed such parameters in cross-sectional studies," noted P.H. Kraus and colleagues at the Ruhr University of Bochum," who "employed a battery of tests to investigate fine motor performance over a period of 4 years in 411 de novo parkinsonian patients from the Prado study."

"Specifically, tapping and pegboard testing ('plugging') were evaluated and performance on these tests compared with clinical ratings," according to the report published in the journal Movement Disorders. "Plugging scores correlated well with tapping scores and clinical rating at each assessment timepoint," and "both tests also showed significant differences to healthy controls."

"Nevertheless, 'fast tapping' was found to be less impaired than was plugging in de novo patients," study data showed. "Over time, it was observed that plugging scores, but not tapping scores, exhibited changes that paralleled movements in clinical score."

Notably, "plugging scores exhibited a marked response to dopaminergic therapy, whereas fast tapping showed no therapeutic response," test results indicated.

"Fast tapping is certainly not suitable for assessment of bradykinesia or hypokinesia, and does not respond to dopaminergic therapy," the researchers concluded.

Kraus and coauthors published their study in Movement Disorders (Analysis of the Course of Parkinson's Disease Under Dopaminergic Therapy: Performance of "Fast Tapping" Is Not a Suitable Parameter. Mov Disord, 2005;20(3):348-54).

For additional information, contact P.H. Kraus, Dept. of Neurology, St. Josef-Hospital, Ruhr University of Bochum, Bochum, Germany.

The publisher of the journal Movement Disorders can be contacted at: Wiley-Liss, Division John Wiley & Sons Inc., 111 River St., Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA.

Keywords: Bochum, Germany, Diagnosis, Diagnostics, Dopaminergic Therapy, Neurology, Parkinson's Disease, Therapy, Treatment.

This article was prepared by Pain & Central Nervous System Week editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2005, Pain & Central Nervous System Week via NewsRx.com.

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