Objective: To establish the correlation between cytokines level in the serum of patients with ET and disease severity.

Background: Essential tremor (ET) is the most common movement disorder, but its pathogenesis remains poorly understood. In recent years, there have been discussions about the neurodegenerative nature of ET.  Inflammation is thought to be a major contributor to the neurodegeneration and cytokines are considered peripheral markers of neuroinflammation.

Method: The study population consisted of 90 ET patients, aged 18 to 81 (22 male and 68 female). The severity of tremor was evaluated by the Fahn Tolosa Marin tremor rating score. The control group consisted of 90 healthy individuals. Patients with signs of the acute the inflammatory process were excluded from both the ET and control groups. All subjects signed informed consent for the study, which was approved by the Local Ethics Committee of the State Institute of Experimental Medicine. In the serum of patients with ET and the control group, the concentrations of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10 and TNF-alpha were measured by ELISA. Evaluation of diagnostic efficacy and calculation of threshold values for results with predictor value, carried out using ROC analysis in the statistical module MedCalc Software, version 12.4.0.

Results: The levels of IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-alpha in the ET group was (3.3 ± 0.3) pg/ml, (1.1 ± 0.2) pg/ml, (0.1 ± 0,04) pg/ml respectively and was not different from the control group. The levels of IL-8 and IL-10 were higher in the ET group than in the control group and was (3.8 ± 0.9) pg/ml and (4.9 ± 0.4) pg/ml respectively, vs (1.0 ± 0.2) pg / ml and (3.0 ± 0.3) pg/ml, respectively, p = 0.02 and p = 0.00. The IL-8 level correlated with the tremor severity (FTM score) (r = 0.371, p < 0.01). ROC analysis was performed with the construction of the ROC curve as a method of early detection of predisposition prediction to the development of pronounced tremor in the presence of ET in the content of IL-8 in the blood, optimal cut-point value was 4 pg/ml. AUC-ROC area under the curve was 0.761, which indicates the diagnostic effectiveness of this method.

Conclusion: The level of IL-8 in the blood above 4 pg / ml can be considered as a risk factor for the development of pronounced tremor at ET.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/serum-inflammatory-profile-for-the-discrimination-of-tremor-severity-in-essential-tremor/