The motor changes associated with Huntington’s disease
Introduction
Huntington’s disease (HD), an inherited
neurodegenerative disorder, damages specific areas of the brain, resulting
in movement difficulties as well as cognitive and behavioral changes. HD
is often characterized by the motor symptoms that it causes. In fact, when
HD was first discovered it was called Huntington’s chorea, as a reference
to the uncontrollable, dance-like movement that is common among people with
HD. Motor symptoms, though not always the first symptoms to appear, are
often the reason that people with HD first see a doctor. Before genetic
testing for the expanded CAG repeat within the Huntington gene became
available, doctors could only make diagnoses according to motor symptoms.
Even today, these symptoms are an important part of the criteria for clinical
diagnosis; they generally define the age of onset of HD in an individual.
Click here to return to the The Diagnosis of Huntington's Disease page.
Last Modified: 05/22/2009
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