The prevalence of essential tremor in elderly Koreans

Eung Seok Oh, Jong Min Kim, Young Eun Kim, Ji Young Yun, Ji Seon Kim, Sang Eun Kim, Seok Bum Lee, Jung Jae Lee, Joon Hyuk Park, Tae Hui Kim, Ki Woong Kim, Beom S. Jeon

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Essential tremor (ET) is one of the most common movement disorders. The prevalence of ET varies substantially among studies. In Korea, there is no well-designed epidemiological study of the prevalence of ET. Thus, we investigated the prevalence of ET in a community in Korea. Standardized interviews and in-person neurological examinations were performed in a random sample of the elderly aged 65 yr or older. Next, movement specialists attempted to diagnose ET clinically. People who showed equivocal parkinsonian features underwent dopamine transporter imaging using [123I]-FP-CIT SPECT, to differentiate ET from parkinsonism. A total of 714 subjects participated in this population-based study. Twenty six of these subjects were diagnosed as having ET. The crude prevalence of ET was 3.64 per 100 persons. Age, gender, or education period were not different between the ET patients and the non-ET subjects. The prevalence of ET was slightly lower than those reported in previous studies. Further studies including more subjects are warranted.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1694-1698
Number of pages5
JournalJournal of Korean Medical Science
Volume29
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences.

Keywords

  • 2-Carbomethoxy-8-(3-fluoropropyl)-3-(4-iodophenyl) tropane SPECT, Korea
  • Essential Tremor
  • Prevalence

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