• Yanbing Hou, Qin Han, Ruwei Ou, Kuncheng Liu, Junyu Lin, Tianmi Yang, and Huifang Shang.
• Department of neurology, Laboratory of Neurodegenerative Disorders, National Clinical Research Center for Geriatrics, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610041, China.
• Chin. Med. J. 2023 Feb 20; 136 (4): 446450446-450.

BackgroundEssential tremor (ET) and Parkinson's disease (PD) are common movement disorders. ET-PD syndrome is characterized by the occurrence of PD in patients with a previous history of ET, which may be an independent phenotype distinct from PD. This study aims to identify clinical characteristics and subtypes in ET-PD.MethodsA total of 93 newly diagnosed ET-PD patients and 93 newly diagnosed PD patients matched for age, sex, education, and disease duration of PD were selected using propensity score matching analysis. The K-means cluster analysis was performed for 11 variables derived from the ET-PD group, and cluster profiles were established through statistical analysis of demographic and clinical variables.ResultsThe ET-PD group consisted of a high number of patients with a family history of ET exhibiting evident tremor with milder hypokinesia and postural instability symptoms, as compared to the PD group. Through the cluster analysis, two clusters of ET-PD patients were identified. The ET-PD cluster 1 ( n  = 34) had a shorter ET duration before PD onset, lower number of patients with a family history of ET, higher unified PD rating scale instability scores, higher non-motor symptoms scores (non-motor symptoms scale D1 scores, Hamilton depression scale scores, Hamilton anxiety scale scores, and PD sleep scale-2 scores), and higher Chinese version of the PD questionnaire-39 scores relative to the ET-PD cluster 2 ( n  = 59).ConclusionET-PD patients had significantly different characteristics for motor symptoms as compared to PD patients, and may be distinctly divided into two clinical subtypes, namely, the ET-PD complex type and the ET-PD simple type.Copyright © 2022 The Chinese Medical Association, produced by Wolters Kluwer, Inc. under the CC-BY-NC-ND license.

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