ET VS PD

[kaypeeoh]

I found a few studies showing ET patients have a small degree of striatal dopaminergic degeneration. I've had dominant LEFT hand tremor for 4 years. Other than the tremor I have no PD signs. I was on Sinemet for two years and now I'm on Rytary. I had the DST scan 3 months ago. It shows an imbalance between the left and right sides of the substantia nigra, weaker on the RIGHT side.

If this is PD and I've had it for 4 years, shouldn't some other signs have kicked in by now?

"Conclusions: Our results do not support the hypothesis of a link between essential tremor and Parkinson's disease. However, it appears that ET patients have a small degree of striatal dopaminergic degeneration. If this is due to alterations in the nigrostriatl pathway or of other origin it is not clear. Follow-up studies of essential tremor patients are warranted to assess progression of disease and to understand better the possible cause for striatal dopaminergic degeneration."

[park_bear]

ET is an action tremor, whereas PD tremor is a resting tremor. Therein lies the essential difference.

[lenamm in reply to park_bear]

I had action, positional and resting tremor now I mainly just have a mild action tremor post PTT but no ET, pure PD.

[kaypeeoh in reply to park_bear]

When holding a cup of coffee I don't spill anything but there's a tremor when not using the hand.

[Resano in reply to kaypeeoh]

Nota bene: "Tremor diminishes with ipsilateral voluntary limb movement, yet increases with contralateral movement" (Duval et al, Neurobiol Dis 2019 cited by Blakemore et al 2019)

[MarionP]

It might just be inconclusive at this time that you really have PD. But if the meds help, then that's a functional benefit independent of diagnosis and I would take whatever benefit I could get regardless.

Diagnosiss is not an exact science. I had similar scan results for a couple years and for the first 2-3 years the dx. was "parkinsonism," upgraded only later to PD.

[janers]

My mom is diagnosed with ET and has a resting and action tremor. I am diagnosed with PD and have more of an action tremor. Go figure!