The presence of cerebellar signs did not aggregate in families with essential tremor (ET), a recent study found. In the current dataset, these did not seem to be disease features that were heritable. 187 ET subjects (59 probands, 128 affected relatives) enrolled in a genetic study at Yale and Columbia universities underwent a detailed videotaped neurological examination. Researchers found:

• In a bivariate logistic regression model, the presence of intention tremor in the proband was not a predictor of the presence of intention tremor in the relatives.
• In a similar model, the presence of greater tandem gait difficulty (ie, a tandem gait score in the upper quartile) in the proband was not a predictor of the presence of such difficulty in the relatives.