title: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in Patients with Tremor Dominant Parkinson's Disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Unilateral hand tremor is one of the cardinal symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Additionally, mechanical traumatic hand movement is one of the risk factors for carpal tunnel syndrome. Our objective in this study was to examine whether repetitive mechanical movement may be related to the development of carpal tunnel syndrome in Parkinson's disease with unilateral hand tremor using neurophysiological methods.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study participants included 33 de novo Parkinson's disease patients with unilateral hand tremor, and we compared the tremor hand and non-tremor hand within the same patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seven (21.2%) of the 33 patients had carpal tunnel syndrome. All of carpal tunnel syndrome patients showed neurophysiological abnormalities in both the hand without tremor and the hand with tremor. In addition, in patients without carpal tunnel syndrome, the sensory nerve action potential was lower in the hand without tremor than in the hand with tremor, although there were no significant differences.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We concluded that hand tremor in de novo Parkinson's disease patients was not directly related to the development of carpal tunnel syndrome. In contrast, more frequent use of hand without tremor may induce mechanical loading and may be associated with CTS in the hand without tremor. Early diagnosis of Parkinson's disease and proper education in hand use may be essential for preventing carpal tunnel syndrome in Parkinson's disease tremor patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Sanggye Paik Hospital, Inje University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Sang Won
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Sanggye Paik Hospital, Inje University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Kyeong Yeol
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Cheon
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Sanggye Paik Hospital, Inje University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Jeong Yeon
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Sanggye Paik Hospital, Inje University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Jong Sam
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Baik
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002349:Carpal Tunnel Syndrome / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006225:Hand / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009431:Neural Conduction / Q000502:physiology; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014202:Tremor