BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Our aim was to investigate the presence of brain gray matter (GM) abnormalities in patients with different forms of essential tremor (ET). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used optimized voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and manually traced single region-of-interest analysis in 50 patients with familial ET and in 32 healthy subjects. Thirty patients with ET had tremor of the arms (a-ET), whereas the remaining 20 patients had both arm and head tremor (h-ET). RESULTS: VBM showed marked atrophy of the cerebellar vermis in the patients with h-ET with respect to healthy subjects (P(corrected) < .001). Patients with a-ET showed a trend toward a vermal GM volume loss that did not reach a significant difference with respect to healthy controls (P(uncorrected) < .01). The region-of-interest analysis showed a reduction of the cerebellar volume (CV) in the h-ET group (98.2 +/- 13.6 mm(3)) compared with healthy controls (110.5 +/- 15.5 mm(3), P < .012) as well as in the entire vermal area (790.3 +/- 94.5 mm(2), 898.6 +/- 170.6 mm(2), P < .04 in h-ET and control groups, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Atrophy of the cerebellar vermis detected in patients with h-ET strongly supports the evidence for the involvement of the cerebellum in the pathophysiology of ET. The lack of a significant CV loss observed in patients with a-ET suggests that a-ET and h-ET might represent distinct subtypes of the same disease.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Our aim was to investigate the presence of brain gray matter (GM) abnormalities in patients with different forms of essential tremor (ET). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used optimized voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and manually traced single region-of-interest analysis in 50 patients with familial ET and in 32 healthy subjects. Thirty patients with ET had tremor of the arms (a-ET), whereas the remaining 20 patients had both arm and head tremor (h-ET). RESULTS: VBM showed marked atrophy of the cerebellar vermis in the patients with h-ET with respect to healthy subjects (P(corrected) < .001). Patients with a-ET showed a trend toward a vermal GM volume loss that did not reach a significant difference with respect to healthy controls (P(uncorrected) < .01). The region-of-interest analysis showed a reduction of the cerebellar volume (CV) in the h-ET group (98.2 +/- 13.6 mm(3)) compared with healthy controls (110.5 +/- 15.5 mm(3), P < .012) as well as in the entire vermal area (790.3 +/- 94.5 mm(2), 898.6 +/- 170.6 mm(2), P < .04 in h-ET and control groups, respectively). CONCLUSIONS:Atrophy of the cerebellar vermis detected in patients with h-ET strongly supports the evidence for the involvement of the cerebellum in the pathophysiology of ET. The lack of a significant CV loss observed in patients with a-ET suggests that a-ET and h-ET might represent distinct subtypes of the same disease.
Authors: Jordan E Axelrad; Elan D Louis; Lawrence S Honig; Ingrid Flores; G Webster Ross; Rajesh Pahwa; Kelly E Lyons; Phyllis L Faust; Jean Paul G Vonsattel Journal: Arch Neurol Date: 2008-01
Authors: K J Friston; A P Holmes; J B Poline; P J Grasby; S C Williams; R S Frackowiak; R Turner Journal: Neuroimage Date: 1995-03 Impact factor: 6.556
Authors: P G Bain; L J Findley; P Atchison; M Behari; M Vidailhet; M Gresty; J C Rothwell; P D Thompson; C D Marsden Journal: J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry Date: 1993-08 Impact factor: 10.154
Authors: G Hagemann; L Lemieux; S L Free; K Krakow; A D Everitt; B E Kendall; J M Stevens; S D Shorvon Journal: J Neurol Date: 2002-12 Impact factor: 4.849
Authors: Elan D Louis; Arthur Gillman; Sarah Boschung; Christopher W Hess; Qiping Yu; Seth L Pullman Journal: Cerebellum Date: 2012-12 Impact factor: 3.847
Authors: Martina Hoskovcová; Olga Ulmanová; Otakar Sprdlík; Tomáš Sieger; Jana Nováková; Robert Jech; Evžen Růžička Journal: Cerebellum Date: 2013-02 Impact factor: 3.847