A rare neurological disorder named ‘orthostatic tremor syndrome’ has been diagnosed by Neurologist at Bhopal Memorial Hospital & Research centre (BMHRC).
This is probably Madhya Pradesh’s first case of this rare disease that has come to light at BMHRC. The patient is being treated on an OPD basis, without admitting in hospital. With the help of medicines, his condition has improved a lot. He has started walking without any support and doing his daily tasks.Dr. Chandreshkhar Rawat, Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology Department, said, “The 66-year-old gas victim patient had come to the Neurology Department OPD with complaints of difficulty in standing up and walking. The patient was not able to even stand without any support. After his history taking, we’ve performed Surface EMG in the neurophysiology laboratory with the help of our Neurotechnician Mr Buwan Singh Rana. Surface EMG is one of the kinds of testing technique of EMG, which assesses muscle function by recording muscle activity from the surface above the muscle on the skin. surface EMG suggested that high frequency EMG was recorded in the legs while patient was standing.”
In medical science it is called orthostatic tremor disorder. Orthostatic tremor (OT) is a rare form of tremor and is characterized by subjective unsteadiness during standing, which is relieved by sitting or walking. The important thing about this disease is that the tremors in his legs are not visible with naked eyes. For this reason, surface EMG testing is required, he added.
Dr Rawat said that according to a research published in an international journal in 2016, only 68 cases of this disease were reported in the United Kingdom during five years. No report related to how many patients are suffering from this disease in India or Madhya Pradesh has been published so far in any reputed medical journal.BMHRC Director Dr Manisha Srivastava said that Dr Rawat has an expertise in movement disorders. Discovering a rare disease proves his efficiency.
It is a matter of happiness and satisfaction that the patients, who are coming to BMHRC are getting a lot of benefit from it. Other patients suffering from movement disorders like Parkinson's disease, dystonia, tremors in hands and legs are also being treated successfully.
Causes
· increased thyroid hormone
· Extreme deficiency of Vitamin B12
· Gammopathies, Wilson's or Parkinson's disease
· Paraneoplastic
· Due to the formation of a lesions in the brain or spinal cord
Why is it difficult to recognize the disease?
-Listening carefully to the patient's symptoms is very important. After this, the patient is examined by the electrophysiology surface EMG. Performing surface EMG requires expertise in the subject, so very few hospitals perform this test. The facility is available in BMHRC.
Full recovery depends on the cause Dr. Rawat said that whether the patient will be able to completely recover from this disease or not, it depends on the cause. If the problem is due to deficiency of Vitamin B-12 or increase in thyroid hormone, then the patient can be cured by taking medicines or injections. If the patient has this disease due to cancer or Parkinson's, then it will depend on the patient's recovery from that disease whether the patient will be able to recover completely or not.