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Essential tremor is not dependent upon cerebellar Purkinje cell loss
Parkinsonism & Related Disorders, 06/15/2012
Clinical Article
Rajput AH et al. – Cerebellar Purkinje cell (PC) loss does not distinguish essential tremor (ET) from controls. It is concluded that PC loss is neither a pathological basis for, nor the distinctive feature of ET.
Methods- All ET cases and PD controls were followed at the clinic.
- Normal controls had no history of neurological disease and had normal standard neuropathological studies.
- The PC counts were done by a neuropathologist who was blinded to the clinical diagnosis.
- Three different methods were used for counting PC; section through any part of the PC, through any part of the PC nucleus, and through any part of PC nucleolus.
- The counts were done in five non-contiguous microscopic fields.
- 59 brains were studied.
- These included 12 ET, 41 PD controls, and six normal controls.
- The mean age at death was 82.7 in ET, 79.1 in PD, and 75.7 years in the normal controls.
- The mean duration of symptoms was 34 years in ET and 15.7 years in the PD cases.
- The mean PC counts through any part of the neuron were 64.8 in ET, 56.2 in PD, and 58.0 in normal controls.
- Differences were not significant.
