Objective: To evaluate the clinical characteristics of patients diagnosed with ET.

Background: Essential tremor (ET) is the most common adult movement disorder and the field of ET remains extremely challenging. The only tool for phenotyping is the clinical history and examination. There is currently no ET-specific biomarker that can be used for phenotyping, and there is considerable clinical overlap with other disorders such as Parkinson’s disease (PD) and dystonia.

Method: A cross‑sectional study carried out over a period of 5 years from January 2017 to January 2021 including all the patients followed up in our department for essential tremor. The diagnosis of ET was established using the consensus criteria given by the movement study group.

Results: In the present study, 90 patients comprising 52 (57%) males and 38 (43%) females diagnosed with ET were enrolled. A positive family history was found in 46%. The mean age was 51 years. Tremor of the hand was identified to be most predominant (100%). Head tremor was found in 36 patients (40%), lower limbs tremor and voice tremor were observed in 19 (21%) and 15(17%) patients. Postural tremor was observed in all, followed by action tremor in 23 patients (25%) and rest tremor in 11 patients (12%).

Conclusion: Although ET is one of the most common neurologic disorder, the diagnosis remain difficult because of the phenotypic variability. Appropriate clinical evaluation would definitely help to differentiate ET from other differential diagnosis and especially Parkinson’s disease.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/clinical-characteristics-of-essential-tremor-in-tunisia/