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Association between Essential Tremor and Parkinsons disease
Is there an association between Essential Tremor and Parkinsons disease (PD)?
According to different sources, the prevalence of Essential Tremor in patients with PD ranges from 3% to 8.5%.
The prevalence of Parkinsons disease in Essential Tremor is debated (4.5% to 21.8%).
The relatively high frequency of familial tremor (15% to 23%) among patients with Parkinsons disease supports the existence of an etiologic link between Parkinsons disease and Essential Tremor.
An additional Essential Tremor marker was mapped to chromosome 4p14-16.3 in an autosomal dominant Parkinsons disease family.
Furthermore, an allele (263_bp) of the nonamyloid component of plaques-Rep1 polymorphism has been associated with sporadic Parkinsons disease in a German and more recently in an American population of patients with Parkinsons disease.
The authors conclude that the association of this allele with Parkinsons disease and Essential Tremor “suggests a possible etiologic link between these two conditions.”
In addition, Lewy body pathology has been demonstrated in several pathological series in brains of patients with Essential Tremor.
Further epidemiologic and genetic studies are needed before the controversy about the relationship between Parkinsons disease and Essential Tremor can be resolved.
