Weight Loss Huntington S Disease
A recent study explored the association between gastric mucosa mucus lining abnormalities in huntington s disease hd and mechanisms in the increased weight loss experienced by hd patients.
Weight loss huntington s disease. Weight change was assessed in 927 adults with a definite diagnosis of huntington s disease who were followed prospectively for mean sd 3 4 1 4 years. Progression of these symptoms typically leads to an inability to ingest sufficient food and liquids. Huntington disease hd is a hereditary neurodegenerative disorder caused by an expanded number of cag repeats in the huntingtin gene.
Patients often require a feeding tube to. Huntington s disease hd is an autosomal dominant disease with neurologic manifestations. Symptoms of juvenile huntington s disease the start and progression of huntington s disease in younger people may be slightly different from that in adults.
Weight loss in huntington disease increases with higher cag repeat number. A hallmark of hd is unintended weight loss the cause of which is unknown. In transgenic mouse models of hd weight loss is recognized as a feature associated with the disease onset.
This is due not only to difficulties encountered with ingesting food but also changes the disease causes in the body. It is unclear whether a similar pattern occurs in humans. In addition to the above disorders weight loss is common in people with huntington s disease especially as the disease progresses.
This medium difficulty study describes how people with more cag repeats lose more weight and provides some theories as to why that might be the case. Huntington s disease has long been linked to jerky movements. Patient s weight must be monitored regularly and kilocalories should be altered in a way that is.
Djoussé l knowlton b cupples la marder k shoulson i myers rh. New discovery explains weight problems in huntingon s disease date. In order to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of weight loss in hd we studied its relation to other disease characteristics including motor cognitive and behavioral.