TY - JOUR
T1 - Essential tremor
T2 - The most common form of cerebellar degeneration?
AU - Louis, Elan D.
AU - Faust, Phyllis L.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s).
PY - 2020/8/14
Y1 - 2020/8/14
N2 - Background: The degenerative cerebellar ataxias comprise a large and heterogeneous group of neurological diseases whose hallmark clinical feature is ataxia, and which are accompanied, to variable degrees, by other features that are attributable to cerebellar dysfunction. Essential tremor (ET) is an exceptionally common neurological disease whose primary motor feature is action tremor, although patients often manifest intention tremor, mild gait ataxia and several other features of cerebellar dysfunction. Main Body: In this paper, we review the abundant evidence derived from clinical, neuroimaging and postmortem studies, linking ET to cerebellar dysfunction. Furthermore, we review the combination of clinical, natural history and postmortem features suggesting that ET is neurodegenerative. We then compare the prevalence of ET (400 - 900 cases per 100,000) to that of the other cerebellar degenerations (ranging from <0.5 - 9 cases per 100,000, and in composite likely to be on the order of 20 cases per 100,000) and conclude that ET is 20 to 45 times more prevalent than all other forms of cerebellar degeneration combined. Conclusion: Given the data we present, it is logical to conclude that ET is, by far, the most common form of cerebellar degeneration.
AB - Background: The degenerative cerebellar ataxias comprise a large and heterogeneous group of neurological diseases whose hallmark clinical feature is ataxia, and which are accompanied, to variable degrees, by other features that are attributable to cerebellar dysfunction. Essential tremor (ET) is an exceptionally common neurological disease whose primary motor feature is action tremor, although patients often manifest intention tremor, mild gait ataxia and several other features of cerebellar dysfunction. Main Body: In this paper, we review the abundant evidence derived from clinical, neuroimaging and postmortem studies, linking ET to cerebellar dysfunction. Furthermore, we review the combination of clinical, natural history and postmortem features suggesting that ET is neurodegenerative. We then compare the prevalence of ET (400 - 900 cases per 100,000) to that of the other cerebellar degenerations (ranging from <0.5 - 9 cases per 100,000, and in composite likely to be on the order of 20 cases per 100,000) and conclude that ET is 20 to 45 times more prevalent than all other forms of cerebellar degeneration combined. Conclusion: Given the data we present, it is logical to conclude that ET is, by far, the most common form of cerebellar degeneration.
KW - Essential tremor
KW - cerebellar degeneration
KW - cerebellum
KW - neurodegeneration
KW - prevalence
KW - spinocerebellar ataxia
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U2 - 10.1186/s40673-020-00121-1
DO - 10.1186/s40673-020-00121-1
M3 - Review article
C2 - 32922824
AN - SCOPUS:85089909159
SN - 2053-8871
VL - 7
JO - Cerebellum and Ataxias
JF - Cerebellum and Ataxias
IS - 1
M1 - 12
ER -