Clinical and genetic investigation of a Brazilian family with Huntington's disease

Funct Neurol. 2016 Jul-Sep;31(3):135-42. doi: 10.11138/fneur/2016.31.3.135.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate a Brazilian family carrying full penetrance alleles for Huntington's disease (HD) in order to correlate each member's genetic and clinical features. To this end, the following scales were administered in each patient: the Beck Depression Inventory, the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale (UHDRS). The patterns of CAG and CCG polymorphic regions in the HTT gene were determined, the disease burden score was calculated, and genotypes were correlated with phenotypes within this family. We suggest that HD duration, the number of years of formal education, and UHDRS status variables can explain 96.6% of the MMSE variability in HD patients. A strong significant correlation was found between the disease burden score and the UHDRS (r = 0.76; p-value = 0.049) and the MMSE (r = -0.90; p-value = 0.006). The correlations between CAG allele size and the three clinical evaluations performed in the HD patients were not statistically significant.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Brazil
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Family Health*
  • Female
  • Genetic Association Studies
  • Genotype
  • Humans
  • Huntingtin Protein / genetics*
  • Huntington Disease / diagnosis*
  • Huntington Disease / genetics*
  • Male
  • Mental Status Schedule
  • Middle Aged
  • Severity of Illness Index
  • Trinucleotide Repeats / genetics*

Substances

  • HTT protein, human
  • Huntingtin Protein