TouchDx® introduces TremorTracer for the iPhone, an  application for use in the neurosciences to assess fine motor control along with resting and intention tremors.

Tremor is generally caused by problems in parts of the brain that control muscles throughout the body or in particular areas, such as the hands. Neurological disorders or conditions that can produce tremor include Parkinson’s Disease (PD), multiple sclerosis, stroke, and traumatic brain injury.

Action tremor is typical of cerebellar disease and, as the name implies, the tremor is present when the affected body part is moving. Tremor assessments performed by clinicians can include evaluating the patient’s hands at rest, in various postures and during action and include writing samples of lines, spirals and handwriting.

Essential Tremor (ET) patients typically have handwriting that is shaky and large, whereas that of PD patients may initially be of normal size and progressively become smaller (micrographia). Archimedes Spirals drawn by ET patients tend to illustrate natural fluctuations in tremor magnitude.

Assessing and monitoring tremor longitudinally, is of especially clinically relevant in determining changes in tremor characteristics before and after therapeutic interventions.

App Features Assesments Including:

• The Archimedes Spiral Test – The Archimedes Spiral Test is a widely used shape tracing task used to assess various tremor types in patients. This test guides a patient to trace a spiral pattern on the iPhone screen, which is then recorded and can be used clinically for differential diagnosis.  The Archimedes Spiral Test helps clinicians quantify normal motor activity as well as dysfunction in patients with movement disorders.

• The Writing Test – An extension of the tracing test, the writing skills assessment allows doctors to direct the patient to write letters or characters on the screen and observe the results to determine the presence or absence of micrographia as a differential diagnosis in patients with tremor.

• The Straight line Test - A time-based configurable test that guides the patient to trace straight lines across the screen and allows for observation and tracking of fine motor function and coordination deficits, in patients with movement disorders.

Additional Features Include:

• Ability to set test time from 10 to 30 seconds => target test for individual patients and requirements
• Automatic and real-time tremor tracking and measurement
• Ability to store results and view later for diagnosis and comparison
• Right and/or Left Hand measurements
• Individual patient ID settings