Pathological changes observed in the cerebellum in essential tremor (ET) are a part of the pathophysiological cascade of events in both childhood-onset and adult-onset forms of the disease and both groups seem to reach the same pathological endpoints at a similar age of death, a recent study found. Researchers quantified a broad range of postmortem features in 60 ET cases (11 childhood-onset and 49 adult-onset) and 30 controls. They found:

• Compared to controls, childhood-onset ET cases had lower Purkinje cell (PC) counts, higher torpedo counts, higher heterotopic PC counts, higher basket cell plexus rating, and marginally higher PC axonal recurrent collateral counts.
• The median PC thickened axonal profile count and median PC axonal branching count were 2 to 5 times higher in childhood-onset ET than controls, but the differences did not reach statistical significance.
• Childhood-onset and adult-onset ET had similar PC counts, torpedo counts, heterotopic PC counts, basket cell plexus rating, PC axonal recurrent collateral counts, PC thickened axonal profile count and PC axonal branching count.
• In conclusion, childhood-onset and adult-onset ET shared similar pathological changes in the cerebellum.