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Writing Tremor as a Manifestation of Vitamin B12 Deficiency

DOI:10.21767/1989-5216.1000188
Authors:
Cristina Guijarro-Castro at Grupo Hospitales De Madrid
Cristina Guijarro-Castro
L. Estallo-Guijarro
L. Estallo-Guijarro
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Wring Tremor as a Manifestaon of Vitamin B12 Deciency
Guijarro-Castro C* and Estallo-Guijarro L
Hospital Virgen de la Luz (Cuenca), Caracas and San Bernardo Medical Center (Madrid), Spain
*Corresponding author: Guijarro-Castro C, Hospital Virgen de la Luz (Cuenca), Caracas and San Bernardo Medical Center (Madrid), Spain, Tel:
34969179900; E-mail: crisna.guijarro@sen.es
Received date: January 12, 2017; Accepted date: January 24, 2017; Published date: January 31, 2017
Citaon: Guijarro-Castro C and Estallo-Guijarro L. Wring Tremor as a Manifestaon of Vitamin B12 Deciency. Arch Med. 2017, 9:1
Copyright: © 2017 Guijarro-Castro C, et al. This is an open-access arcle distributed under the terms of the Creave Commons Aribuon License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribuon, and reproducon in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Leer to Editor
Postural and kinec tremor due to vitamin B12 decit is rare
in adults, but secondary wring tremor due this decit is more
unusual. We report the case of a wring tremor paent that was
resolved aer cyanocobalamin treatment. An 80-year-old man
presented with a three-month history of trembling on his right
hand, only becoming apparent when wring. He suered from
hypertension and diabetes, had no familial history recorded, and
did not take dopaminergic-block drugs. Neurologic examinaon
showed a ne, rapid tremor of the hands that began
immediately aer the paent began to write. Results of the rest
of the examinaon were normal. Results of laboratory tests
were normal, except for a serum vitamin B12 level of 132 ng per
liter (normal range, 222 ng/l to 753 ng/l). A Schilling test
demonstrated malabsorpon of vitamin B12. A magnec
resonance image of the brain was normal. Surface
electromyogram showed a 7 Hz synchronous tremor of the
exor and extensor muscles of the forearm that began when the
paent was wring and was absent in other acons.
Electrophysiological studies also showed mild sensory axonal
polyneuropathy. Clonazepam (1 mg per day) and
cyanocobalamin (injecons of 1000 µg given daily for two
weeks, then weekly for two months, and once a month
thereaer) provided complete relief of the tremor. Follow-up
aer one year showed no abnormalies. Then, treatment with
clonazepam was disconnued, without recurrence of the
tremor. Task-specic tremor is a form of acon tremor that
occurs when a person is performing a specic task [1]. The most
frequent form of task-specic tremor is wring tremor (WT). The
pathophysiology of WT is not clear and could be a variant of
essenal tremor or a type of focal dystonia or an independent
enty [2]. However, the results in corcal inhibion during task-
specic contracons indicate that WT is not a variant of focal
task-specic dystonia, but rather an independent enty [3]. WT
typically occurs at a frequency of 5 Hz to 7 Hz. The wring
tremor may progress to another task specic tremor of specic
acon, or rest tremor, but not to postural tremor. Tremor
temporary suppression by alcohol is observed in about one-third
of the cases, and benecial responses to propranolol,
primidone, ancholinergics, botulinum toxin treatment, and
stereotacc surgery has been reported [2].
Although the associaon of tremor in adults with vitamin B12
deciency is very rare [4,5], the paent’s tremor disappeared
aer vitamin B12 supplements, which supports this associaon.
Hyperacvity in the cerebellar hemispheres have been
demonstrated with positron emission tomography in PWT, and it
is known that these structures may be aected by vitamin B12
deciency [6]. There is only one case of postural and kinec
tremor due to vitamin B12 decit reported in the last 13 years
[4] and, like in our paent, it was quickly resolved aer
correcon of this decit. The tremor is a characterisc symptom
of vitamin B12 deciency in children, but not known in adults
[7,8]. The vitamin B12 deciency should be added to the list of
diseases that can cause wring tremor. The deciency correcon
completely solves the tremor.
References
1. Bain PG, Findley LJ, Brion TC, Rothwell JC, Gresty MA, et al.
(1995) Primary wring tremor. Brain 118: 1461-72.
2. Pita Lobo P, Quarocchi G, Jutras MF, Sangla S, Apars E, et al.
(2013) Primary wring tremor and writer's cramp: two faces of a
same coin? Mov Disord 28: 1306-1307.
3. Ljubisavljevic M, Kacar A, Milanovic S, Svetel M, Kosc VS (2006)
Changes in corcal inhibion during task-specic contracons in
primary wring tremor paents. Mov Disord 21: 855-859.
4. Koussa S, Taher A, Sayegh R (2003) Postural and kinec tremor
associated with vitamin B12 deciency. Rev Neurol 159:
1173-1174.
5. Benito-León J, Porta-Etessam J (2000) Shaky-leg syndrome and
vitamin B12 deciency. N Engl J Med 342: 981.
6. Katsaros VK, Glocker FX, Hemmer B, Schumacher M (1998) MRI of
spinal cord and brain lesions in subacute combined degeneraon.
Neuroradiology 40: 716-719.
7. Demir N, Koc A, Üstyol L, Peker E, Abuhandan M (2013) Clinical
and neurological ndings of severe vitamin B12 deciency in
infancy and importance of early diagnosis and treatment. J
Paediatr Child Health 49: 820-824.
8. Uddin MK, Rodnitzky RL (2003) Tremor in children. Semin Pediatr
Neurol 10: 26-34.
Letter to Editor
iMedPub Journals
http://www.imedpub.com/
DOI: 10.21767/1989-5216.1000188
ARCHIVES OF MEDICINE
ISSN 1989-5216 Vol.9 No.1:5
2017
© Under License of Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License | This article is available from: http://www.archivesofmedicine.com/ 1
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
Primary writing tremor
Article
Full-text available
  • Dec 1995
Primary writing tremor (PWT) is considered to be a type of task-specific tremor in which tremor predominantly occurs and interferes with handwriting. We describe the clinical and neurophysiological features of 21 patients (20 male and one female) with PWT. Mean age at tremor onset was 50.1 years. A family history of PWT was obtained from seven patients. Ten patients obtained benefit from drug treatment (mainly propranalol or primidone) and seven responded to alcohol. The writing speeds of the patients (mean +/- SEM: 73.1 +/- 6.6 letters per minute) when using their preferred hand were significantly reduced (Student's t test: P < 0.001) compared with those of healthy control subjects (mean +/- SEM: 127.7 +/- 6.4). Surface polymyography performed during writing showed 4.1-7.3 Hz rhythmic activity predominantly in the intrinsic hand and forearm muscles. Alternating, extensor activation alone, skipping from alternating to extensor activation, and co-contracting EMG patterns were recorded from the flexor and extensor muscles of the forearm. There was no evidence for excessive 'overflow' of this rhythmic EMG activity, as similar activity was detected in comparable muscle groups of healthy control subjects. Accelerometry confirmed that the frequency of PWT ranged from 4.1-7.3 Hz (median 5.5 Hz) and that normal subjects wrote with a 4.0-7.7 Hz oscillation (median 4.6 Hz). Forearm reciprocal inhibition was normal in PWT (n = 13), and thus patients with PWT can be distinguished from those with writer's cramp in whom decreased presynaptic inhibition has been found. Patients were sub-classified as having either type A (n = 11) or B (n = 10) PWT depending on whether tremor appeared during writing (type A: task induced tremor) or whilst writing and adopting the hand position used in writing (type B: positionally sensitive tremor). However, the only differences between these two groups were that a co-contracting EMG pattern and tremor induced by tendon taps to the volar aspect of the wrist were present in type B but not type A cases.
MRI of spinal cord and brain lesions in subacute combined degeneration
Article
Full-text available
  • Dec 1998
Subacute combined degeneration is a rare cause of demyelination of the dorsal and lateral columns of the spinal cord and even more rarely of the pyramidal and spinocerebellar tracts and cerebellum. We present the initial and follow-up MRI appearances in a patient with subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord, brain stem and cerebellum, due to vitamin B12 deficiency. The lesions in these structures were demonstrated clearly as pathologically high-signal areas on T2-weighted images. These lesions, except those of the brain stem and cerebellum, disappeared 4 months after therapy. MRI 14 months after the patient's discharge on vitamin B12 therapy showed the same picture.
Shaky-Leg Syndrome and Vitamin B 12 Deficiency
Article
  • Mar 2000
Clinical and neurological findings of severe vitamin B-12 deficiency in infancy and importance of early diagnosis and treatment
Article
AimNutritional vitamin B-12 deficiency among children in developing countries may lead to a severe clinical status. In this article, the clinical manifestations of vitamin B-12 deficiency and the consequences of delay in its diagnosis have been evaluated. MethodsA total of 41 patients who were hospitalised and treated with the diagnosis of severe vitamin B-12 deficiency in the paediatric haematology department of the hospital were enrolled in the trial. The diagnosis of severe vitamin B-12 deficiency was based on haematological values, a serum vitamin B-12 level of <100pg/mL and a normal level of folic acid. Mental, neuro-motor and social developments of the enrolled patients were assessed by the same physician using the Ankara Developmental Screening Inventory. ResultsThe mean age of 25 male and 16 female patients was determined as 12 (6-18 months) months. Almost all of the children had been fed with breast milk and a poor nutritional state was found in all of the mothers. Non-specific findings such as growth retardation (78%), hyperpigmentation of the skin (78%), diarrhoea (63.4%), convulsion (14.6%), weakness, reluctance to eat, vomiting, irritability and tremor were found in all the patients, in addition to hypotonia, motor retardation and pallor. Treatment with vitamin B-12 provided recovery in all the patients. The mean age of the patients with full recovery was 11.7 months, while the mean age of patients with partial recovery was 12.9 months. Conclusion As a delay in the diagnosis causes irreversible neurological damage, early diagnosis and treatment is highly important.
Primary writing tremor and writer's cramp: Two faces of a same coin?
Article
Changes in cortical inhibition during task‐specific contractions in primary writing tremor patients
Article
Primary writing tremor (PWT) is a rare disease of unknown pathophysiology. We studied changes in silent period (SP) duration, after transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), set at 20% above the motor threshold in 6 PWT patients and 7 healthy control subjects. SP duration was tested during a task-specific act, i.e., writing that induced tremor in all patients in the affected hand (Wr); nonspecific voluntary contraction of intensity, matching that developed during writing (VCWr); and during near maximal voluntary contraction (VCNmax). There were no differences in SP duration during Wr and VCWr contraction on the right affected side or between sides in both PWT patients and control subjects, nor between the groups. However, during VCNmax, SP significantly shortened on both sides in PWT patients, whereas there were no changes in control subjects. Although it appears that inhibitory mechanism are not directly involved in the generation of the tremulous activity, the shortening of SP indicates that central inhibitory mechanisms are affected in PWT patients. Therefore, whereas the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms in PWT and writer's cramp may share common features, the results indicate that PWT is not a variant of focal task-specific dystonia but rather a separate nosological entity. © 2006 Movement Disorder Society
[Postural and kinetic tremor associated with vitamin B12 deficiency]
Article
We report the case of a 77-year-old patient who presented a postural and kinetic tremor of the upper and lower limbs of sub acute onset, which revealed a vitamin B12 deficiency and resolved rapidly after the treatment. Such a presentation is rare.