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Transcranial sonography and the pocket smell test in the differential diagnosis between parkinson’s disease and essential tremor

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the specificity and sensitivity of transcranial sonography (TCS) and the Pocket Smell Test (PST) in differing Parkinson’s disease from essential tremor. The results were compared with the dopamin transporter scan (DaTSCAN) findings. Based on the DaTSCAN finding we formed a group of patients with essential tremor (51 patients) and a group with the Parkinson’s disease (59 patients). The control group consisted of 26 healthy one. To evaluate the olfactory dysfunction the PST was used, whereas by TCS the substantia nigra hyperechogenicity was marked. The sensitivity and specificity of each diagnostic method was statistically calculated. In confirming Parkinson’s disease the specificity of TCS was 88.2 % and the sensitivity 94.9 %. The specificity of PST was 80.4 % whereas the sensitivity was 74.6 %. TCS and PST should be performed to evaluate which patients need to be examined by DaTSCAN.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standard statement

This study has been approved by Ethical committee of University Hospital Center in Osijek and has, therefore, been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.

Informed consent statement

All patients gave their informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Osijek University Hospital, “Josip Juraj Strossmayer” University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia

    Ivanka Štenc Bradvica, Silva Butković-Soldo & Dragutin Kadojić

  2. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Osijek University Hospital, “Josip Juraj Strossmayer” University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia

    Ivan Mihaljević

  3. Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Split University Hospital, University of Split, Split, Croatia

    Marina Titlić

  4. Department of Ophthalmology and Optometry, Faculty of Medicine, Osijek University Hospital, “Josip Juraj Strossmayer” University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia

    Mario Bradvica

  5. Faculty of Medicine, “Josip Juraj Strossmayer” University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia

    Kristina Kralik

Authors
  1. Ivanka Štenc Bradvica
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  2. Ivan Mihaljević
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  3. Silva Butković-Soldo
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  4. Dragutin Kadojić
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  5. Marina Titlić
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  6. Mario Bradvica
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Correspondence to Ivanka Štenc Bradvica.

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Štenc Bradvica, I., Mihaljević, I., Butković-Soldo, S. et al. Transcranial sonography and the pocket smell test in the differential diagnosis between parkinson’s disease and essential tremor. Neurol Sci 36, 1403–1410 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-015-2152-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-015-2152-y

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