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Cerebellar voxel-based morphometry in essential tremor

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Abstract

Background

Imaging studies investigating cerebellar gray matter (GM) in essential tremor (ET) showed conflicting results. Moreover, no large study explored the cerebellum in ET patients with resting tremor (rET), a syndrome showing enhanced blink reflex recovery cycle (BRrc).

Objective

To investigate cerebellar GM in ET and rET patients using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis.

Methods

Seventy ET patients with or without resting tremor and 39 healthy controls were enrolled. All subjects underwent brain 3 T-MRI and BRrc recording. We compared the cerebellar GM volumes between ET (n = 40) and rET (n = 30) patients and controls through a VBM analysis. Moreover, we investigated possible correlations between cerebellar GM volume and R2 component of BRrc.

Results

rET and ET patients had similar disease duration. All rET patients and none of ET patients had enhanced BRrc. No differences in the cerebellar volume were found when ET and rET patients were compared to each other or with controls. By considering together the two tremor syndromes in a large patient group, the VBM analysis showed bilateral clusters of reduced GM volumes in Crus II in comparison with controls. The linear regression analysis in rET patients revealed a cluster in the left Crus II where the decrease in GM volume correlated with the R2BRrc increase.

Conclusion

Our study suggests that ET and rET are different tremor syndromes with similar mild cerebellar gray matter involvement. In rET patients, the left Crus II may play a role in modulating the brainstem excitability, encouraging further studies on the role of cerebellum in these patients.

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Availability of data and materials

The data that support the results of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Code availability

Not applicable.

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Author notes

  1. Alessia Sarica and Andrea Quattrone equally contributed to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Neuroscience Research Center, Magna Graecia University, viale Europa, Germaneto, 88100, Catanzaro, Italy

    Alessia Sarica, Marianna Crasà, Maria Grazia Vaccaro, Maria Giovanna Bianco, Vera Gramigna, Marida De Maria & Aldo Quattrone

  2. Institute of Neurology, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Magna Graecia University, 88100, Catanzaro, Italy

    Andrea Quattrone

  3. Neuroimaging Research Unit, Institute of Molecular Bioimaging and Physiology, National Research Council, 88100, Catanzaro, Italy

    Rita Nisticò, Basilio Vescio, Federico Rocca & Aldo Quattrone

Authors
  1. Alessia Sarica
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Contributions

AS, AQ and AQ contributed to the study conception and design. Data collection was performed by AQ, MC, RN, MGV and FC. Statistical analysis was performed by AS, MGB and VG. The first draft of the manuscript was written by AS, AQ and AQ. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aldo Quattrone.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All patients in our study gave their informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study. Approval of our study was obtained from the ethics committee of Magna Graecia University review board, Catanzaro, Italy. The procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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All patients signed informed consent regarding publishing their data.

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Sarica, A., Quattrone, A., Crasà, M. et al. Cerebellar voxel-based morphometry in essential tremor. J Neurol 269, 6029–6035 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-022-11291-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-022-11291-9

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