Diagnostic value of CT in patients with Huntington's chorea and their offspring.

Striatal and cortical atrophy are significant features in the pathology of Huntington's chorea (HCh). A correlative study revealed that the CT findings of atrophy in HCh (8 patients) parallel the clinical and neurophysiological findings. In offspring (8 subjects) of HCh patients, however, the CT changes were insignificant although neurophysiological data were already suspicious in four of them. One patient with hereditary non-progressive chorea showed no CT changes at all. Perhaps with a more sensitive CT scanning technique minor morphological alterations may also be detected and used for a pre-clinical diagnosis.