Publication details

White matter measures correlate with essential tremor severity - a pilot diffusion tensor imaging study

Authors

NESTRAŠIL Igor SVÁTKOVÁ Alena KYLE Rudser CHITYALA Ravishankar WAKAMUTO Amy MUELLER Bryon BEDNAŘÍK Petr TUITE Paule WU Xiang BUSHARA Khalaf

Year of publication 2018
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Brain and Behavior
MU Faculty or unit

Central European Institute of Technology

Citation
Web https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/brb3.1039
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.1039
Keywords Essential tremor (ET); Tremor network; diffusion tensor imaging (DTI); TremScore; radial diffusivity; Guillain-Mollaret triangle
Description ABSTRACT Background: An evolving pathophysiological concept of essential tremor (ET) points to diffuse brain network involvement, which emphasizes the need to investigate white matter (WM) changes associated with motor symptoms of ET. Objectives: To investigate ET-related WM changes and WM correlates of tremor severity using tremor clinical rating scales and accelerometry. Methods: Tract-based statistics approach (TBSS) was utilized to compare 3 Tesla diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data from 12 ET patients and 10 age- and gender-matched healthy individuals. Clinical scales and tremor frequency and amplitude as measured by accelerometry were correlated with DTI data. Results: ET patients demonstrated mean (MD) and radial diffusivity (RD) abnormalities in tracts involved in primary and associative motor functions such as bilateral corticospinal tracts, the superior longitudinal fascicles, and the corpus callosum but also in non-motor regions including the inferior fronto-occipital and longitudinal fascicles, cingulum bundles, anterior thalamic radiations, and uncinate fascicles. A combined tremor frequency and amplitude score correlated with RD and MD in extensive WM areas, which partially overlapped the regions that were associated with tremor frequency. No significant relationship was found between DTI measures and clinical rating scales scores. Conclusions: The results show that ET-related diffusion WM changes and their correlates with tremor severity are preferentially located in the primary and associative motor areas. In contrast, a relationship between WM was not detected with clinical rating scales. Accelerometry parameters may, therefore, serve as a potentially useful clinical measures that relate to WM deficits in ET.
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