Autonomic dysfunction in presymptomatic and early symptomatic Huntington’s disease
December 29th, 2009 Posted by: admin
Kobal J, Melik Z, Cankar K, Bajrovic FF, Meglic B, Peterlin B, Zaletel M. Autonomic dysfunction in presymptomatic and early symptomatic Huntington’s disease.Acta Neurol Scand: DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0404.2009.01251.x.© 2009 The Authors Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Munksgaard.Objectives [ndash] Although autonomic dysfunction was found in advanced Huntington’s disease (HD) patients it is not clear whether there is autonomic dysfunction in presymptomatic and early symptomatic HD.Material & methods [ndash] Different cardiovascular autonomic tests were performed in 14 presymptomatic HD mutation carriers (PHD), 11 early symptomatic HD patients (EHD) and in 25 sex and age matched controls.Results [ndash] We found attenuated response to simple mental arithmetic test (relative heart rate in PHD and EHD was 10% lower than in controls; diastolic pressure was 10.6% lower in EHD than in controls; P < 0.05) and exaggerated response to the late phase of cold pressor test (relative heart rate was 10% higher in PHD and 7% higher in EHD than in controls; P < 0.05). The rest of the cardiovascular autonomic tests did not reveal significant differences between patients and controls.Conclusions [ndash] Our results suggest that subtle autonomic dysfunction occurs even in PHD and EHD.
