Neurology
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Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
Effect of propranolol on essential tremor.
The investigators tested the effect of 120 mg propranolol daily on 21 patients with essential tremor using a double-blind cross-over method and electrical recording of tremor amplitude and frequency. The patients varied in age between 15 and 60 years and had a mean tremor frequency of 10 cps. Propranolol had no effect on the tremor frequency but reduced the amplutide in 15 of the patients. Propranolol was most effective in older patients and in those with slow tremor frequencies.
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In seven cases of Huntington's chorea, the ventrolateral thalamus was studied by quantitative cytometry. A selective 50 percent atrophy of microneurons (internuncial cells) was found while the macroneurons did not show significant atrophy. Thalamic microneurons might be presynaptic and postsynaptic inhibitory cells. Their specific atrophy in Huntington's chorea thus could be related to the known decrease of gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) in Huntington's chorea.