Glucose metabolism in the brain of patients with essential tremor.
Using positron emission tomography with [18F]fluoro-2-deoxyglucose, we determined the regional cerebral metabolic rate of glucose utilization at rest in 8 medication-free patients with essential tremor and in 10 normal subjects. Taking the metabolic values of regions of interest as ratios to the mean hemispheric metabolism, the patients showed significant glucose hypermetabolism of the medulla and thalami, but not of the cerebellar cortex. This study lends support to earlier suggestions that circuits involving the inferior olivary nuclei in the medulla and the thalmus are involved in the generation of essential tremor.
Hallett
M
M
Human Motor Control Section, Medical Neurology Branch, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892.
Dubinsky
R M
RM
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001923:Brain Chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism; D003847:Deoxyglucose / Q000031:analogs & derivatives; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008526:Medulla Oblongata / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism; D008875:Middle Aged; D013788:Thalamus / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed; D014202:Tremor / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism*
D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D003847:Deoxyglucose; D005947:Glucose