Continuous Monitoring of Essential Tremor: Standards and Challenges

The value of continuous symptom monitoring in people with essential tremor is uncertain.

To determine the relationship between tremor amplitude measured with wearable inertial sensors and clinician- and patient-rated measures.

For 14 days, patients (1) wore inertial sensors on both wrists, (2) self-rated their tremor using a diary, (3) drew spirals, and (4) completed an activities of daily living scale once daily. Patients were also scored using The Essential Tremor Rating Scale (TETRAS) performance in the clinic by a clinician.

We found strong correlations in patient-reported metrics of tremor, but weak correlations between these data and both the inertial sensor data and the in-clinic TETRAS scores.

The patient experience of tremor during normal daily activities may differ from the transducer-based measures of tremor amplitude and rating scales of tremor severity. Future studies should consider how to record features of tremor that are important to patients.