Autonomic dysfunction in presymptomatic and early symptomatic Huntington's disease.

OBJECTIVES

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: 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

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

Our results suggest that subtle autonomic dysfunction occurs even in PHD and EHD.