Is This Considered Hyperreflexia?

I know that I read about this somewhere, but I can't google it again.

My understanding of the definition of hyperreflexia is overactive or overresponsive reflexes. This shows up on neuro exams. Subsequent neuro exams do indicate tremors in both legs and hands.

With my first neuro exam, I told the doctor that if there was pressure on the ball of my foot when standing, my leg would start shaking. This has been a symptom, which waxes and wanes, over a 10 year period.

Now it can happen when applying pressure to the gas or brake pedal in my car; sometimes my leg starts shaking (as in more than a tremor) and other times it can just be a buzzing sensation. This has been happening a lot lately with both legs; at the same time I am going through a lot of hip and back pain, as well as spasticity in my lower legs.

I cannot reproduce this with any certainty.

Today while typing, I was using the baby finger in my left hand to hold down the Caps Lock key and my hand was shaking violently. This at least three times.

Anybody else have this?

And for my inquiring mind, what are the possible causes of this anatomically speaking? Am I putting pressure on nerves where signals aren't getting through to the brain correctly?

[COBOB]

There are two thing that you have to differentiate.  One is action induces tremor and the second is action induces clonus.  These sound like action induced tremor (sometimes called  cerebellar, task-specific, dystonic or Holmes tremor.)  So, more stuff for you to look up.  This type of tremor is considered a cerebellar sign and may be accompanied  with balance and other cerebellar signs.

Bob

[Sumanadevii]

Audrey, I sure hope your neuro has given a MRI of your spine.  Your story is so similar to mine.  Yes, I had the same problem.  In the end, my foot would no longer lift off the gas petal and I gave up driving.  I had only been given MRI's on a machine that wasn't high powered enough.  I have but one lesion on my brain.  The rest are on my brain stem and spine.  The neuro I had kept doing the brain MRI over and over....and wasted years.  I hope you are receiving better care.  It can prevent a lot of damage.

[COBOB]

Oh, and NO.  Hyperreflexia is over-action of an involuntary reflex action.  Stimulus induced actions of typically voluntary muscle actions are Action Induced Tremor or Action Induced Clonus.  The action of your hand sounds like action induced tremor.

Bob

[jensequitur]

Yup, action tremor is a likely explanation.  Basically instead of delivering a strong, steady signal to the muscles in your leg or hand, the brain is sending a zzt-zzt-zzt to the muscle.  So it bounces up and down.  I started noticing this a year before I was diagnosed.  I have a lesion in my cerebellum.

[Audrey_M]

Thanks All:

I am doing a bit more research right now. I have a lot of symptoms/neuro exam results that point to the cerebellum as the origin of many problems.

My MRIs do not show any lesions in the cerebellum. One source I hit recommends a T3 machine to examine this area of the brain. http://www.dizziness-and-balance.com/disorders/central/cerebellar/cerebellar.htm

This article differentiates between cerebellar syndromes- midline and hemispheric. I have symptoms of both.

My symptoms pointing to the cerebellum include:
-balance problems, which my neuro does not believe will resolve (no clear explanation given)
-dizziness...my first symptom
-poor results repeatedly on neuro exam with heel-knee-shin test
-poor results with rapid alternating movement tests
-difficulty with heel walk


Given my understanding of the function of the cerebellum, I think one other thing might factors here is a specific problem with typing that involves coordination. It is becoming a common occurrence with  typing that I hit the space key before completing a word, so that the first word is incomplete and the next word contains the last letter of the previous word.

Interesting to note that a Rhomerg's test has not been included as part of the neuro exam. I did have vestibular therapy years ago and the therapists did do this test with me...poor girl could not maintain her balance.

I guess I'm just another one of those dizzy blondes!

Still trying to figure out how I want to put everything together for a second opinion next Monday.

Audrey

[supermum_ms]

I still have an intermittent action tremor in my left hand/arm, ankle clonus and hyper reflex in the left leg, theres something else that Quix named for me which I can't remember the name for. Basically once clonus activated in the ankle, the muscles in the leg responded, a rippled thumping spasm from one muscle to the next all the way up to my groin.

How I know i've got a hyper reflex in the left and not the right, is that I kick out so hard with the left that i actually kick the neuro in the chest, its obviously hyper and especially compaired to the right legs response. Ha ha after the third time i'd kicked him he told me to stop doing that, yeah like I had any control over what HE was doing to my leg lol.

I didn't know there was a thing called action induced clonus, just thought it was called clonus but i do know that the clonus i have is activated by the arch of my foot when i walk, my foot can't bend or the bouncing starts. When the neuro bent my leg in to a weird frogs leg shape, bent the foot up under the arch, the left leg instantly reacted. Powerful jerks from my ankle, muscles spasming one after the other up my leg and that loverly kick but that doesn't happen in my right leg. Right is normal and left is hyper.

I dont think from what you've described your talking about reflex responses, imo it sounds more like muscle spasms.

Cheers.......JJ

[COBOB]

Here is a 2007 paper on Action induced Clonus available at the NLM Site:
"Action-induced clonus mimicking tremor."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17999433

Yep, I had to Google that one.  I knew about Action Induced Clonus, but needed to find a reference.

Bob

[thornygates]

yes I have this same thing happening in my left a lot. seems the cooler weather makes it happen more or maybe it just happened that way.  I've had it happen in my hands before too. one of the things I am going to talk to neuro about tomorrow.

tg