Objective To explore sleep patterns in individuals with Essential Tremor (ET) and Essential Tremor Plus (ET-Plus), compared to healthy controls, and assess differences between ET and ET-Plus, given the lack of established polysomnography (PSG) data on these groups and the potential for sleep disturbances to serve as clinical markers.
Methods
We conducted a prospective cross-sectional study at NIMHANS, Bengaluru, from November 2021 to August 2023 on 45 patients (26 ET, 19 ET-Plus) and 45 controls. Tremor severity was assessed using TETRAS and FTMTRS, and sleep symptoms with ESS, PSQI, Mayo Sleep Questionnaire, RLS-Q, BQ, GAD-7 and PHQ-9. All cases and controls underwent overnight video PSG. Sleep scoring was manually done by a technically adequate sleep researcher and the first author following AASM (2022) guidelines with data analysed using R studio.
Results
ET patients exhibited younger onset age (30.8 ± 16.7 years) compared to ET-Plus patients (46.8 ± 11.1 years). ET-Plus had higher TETRAS and FTMRS scores (P < 0.001) than ET. Both ET and ET-Plus patients exhibited poorer sleep quality, excessive daytime sleepiness, REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), and Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) symptoms compared to controls. PSG findings supported these clinical observations, showing elevated Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI), reduced Total Sleep Time (TST), prolonged REM latency, decreased sleep efficiency, increased N1 stage duration, and reduced N2/N3 durations and percentages in patients versus controls.
Conclusion
The study highlights significant sleep architecture abnormalities in both ET and ET-Plus patients as compared to healthy controls, with no differences between the ET groups.
Objective In this study, we describe the clinical and investigative profiles of 7 cases of autosomal-recessive spastic ataxia of Charlevoix–Saguenay (ARSACS).
Methods We performed a retrospective chart review of genetically proven cases of ARSACS from our database. Additionally, we reviewed the literature for reported cases of ARSACS from India.
Results All 7 patients experienced disease onset within the first decade of life. According to the available data, all patients had walking difficulty (7/7), spastic ataxia (7/7), classical neuroimaging findings (7/7), sensory‒motor demyelinating polyneuropathy (6/6), abnormal evoked potentials (5/5), and a thickened retinal nerve fiber layer (3/3). Exome sequencing revealed 8 unique pathogenic/likely pathogenic variants (6 novel) in the SACS gene. An additional 21 cases (18 families) of ARSACS that could be identified from India had similar clinical and investigational findings. The most common c.8793delA variant may have a founder effect.
Conclusion Our series adds to the previously reported cases of ARSACS from India and expands the genetic spectrum by adding 6 novel variants.
Clinical and neuroimaging features in neurological Wilson’s disease with claustrum lesions Xin-feng Ma, Ling-yun Fan, Ping Jin, Kang Lin, Guang-an Tong, Gong-qiang Wang Scientific Reports.2024;[Epub] CrossRef
Objective aaMutations in the KMT2B gene have been identified in patients previously diagnosed with idiopathic dystonia. Literature on KMT2B-related dystonia is sparse in the Indian and Asian populations.
Methods aaWe report seven patients with KMT2B-related dystonia studied prospectively from May 2021 to September 2022. Patients underwent deep clinical phenotyping and genetic testing by whole-exome sequencing (WES). A systematic literature search was performed to identify the spectrum of previously published KMT2B-related disorders in the Asian subcontinent.
Results aaThe seven identified patients with KMT2B-related dystonia had a median age at onset of four years. The majority experienced onset in the lower limbs (n = 5, 71.4%), with generalization at a median duration of 2 years. All patients except one had complex phenotypes manifesting as facial dysmorphism (n = 4), microcephaly (n = 3), developmental delay (n = 3), and short stature (n = 1). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) abnormalities were present in four cases. WES revealed novel mutations in the KMT2B gene in all patients except one. Compared to the largest cohort of patients with KMT2B-related disorders, the Asian cohort, comprising 42 patients, had a lower prevalence of female patients, facial dysmorphism, microcephaly, intellectual disability, and MRI abnormalities. Protein-truncating variants were more prevalent than missense variants. While microcephaly and short stature were more common in patients with missense mutations, facial dysmorphism was more common in patients with truncating variants. Deep brain stimulation, performed in 17 patients, had satisfactory outcomes.
Conclusion aaThis is the largest series of patients with KMT2B-related disorders from India, further expanding the clinico-genotypic spectrum. The extended Asian cohort emphasizes the unique attributes of this part of the world.
Citations
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Clinical and genetic profile of patients with dystonia: An experience from a tertiary neurology center from India Debjyoti Dhar, Vikram V. Holla, Riyanka Kumari, Ravi Yadav, Nitish Kamble, Babylakshmi Muthusamy, Pramod Kumar Pal Parkinsonism & Related Disorders.2024; 120: 105986. CrossRef
The clinical spectrum and pathogenesis associated with KMT2B variants in Chinese pediatric patients Shuangjin Ding, Gang Xie, Zonglin Han, Yangming Wang, Ming Shi, Feng Zhai, Tinghong Liu, Zihang Xie, Weihua Zhang, Yun Wu, Xinying Yang, Anna Zhou, Fang Fang, Shuhong Ren, Shuli Liang, Huiqing Cao, Hui Xiong, Changhong Ding, Lifang Dai Parkinsonism & Related Disorders.2024; 129: 107172. CrossRef