P5.11 THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM FUNCTIONING IN PATIENTS WITH HUNTINGTON’S DISEASE

DOI

10.1016/j.artres.2009.10.066How to use a DOI?

Abstract

Background: Huntington’s disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder leading to progressive death of neurons in various brain regions. In advanced stages of disease there is a classical triad of movement, behavioural, and cognitive disorders. Besides there are often symptoms suggestive of autonomic dysfunction, like excessive sweating, decrease in orthostatic tolerance, sexual dysfunction, and a disturbance in micturition. Clinical testing has revealed the hypofunction of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) in mid and advanced HD patients.

Aim: We intended to investigate functioning of ANS in early stages of HD.

Methods: We measured heart rate, systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) in 14 presymptomatic (PHD), 11 early symptomatic patients (EHD) and in 25 age and sex matched controls during rest and during simple mental arithmetic test. Heart rate variability (HRV) analyses were determined by the autoregression method. The area under the power spectrum curves over the high frequency (HF) band (0.15–0.4Hz) and the low frequency (LF) band (0.04–0.15Hz) was determined.

Results: Attenuated response to simple mental arithmetic test in PHD and EHD patients (relative heart rate in PHD and EHD patients was 10% lower than in controls; diastolic pressure was 10.6% lower in EHD than in controls; p<0.05) was found. There was higher LF and lower HF component of HRV in PHD relative to EHD patients.

Conclusion: The results suggest there is an ANS dysfunction in EHD and even in PHD patients. In PHD patients there is a predominance of sympathetic over parasympathetic part of ANS.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license.

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Z. Melik
AU  - K. Cankar
AU  - J. Kobal
PY  - 2009
DA  - 2009/12/03
TI  - P5.11 THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM FUNCTIONING IN PATIENTS WITH HUNTINGTON’S DISEASE
JO  - Artery Research
SP  - 176
EP  - 176
VL  - 3
IS  - 4
SN  - 1876-4401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.artres.2009.10.066
DO  - 10.1016/j.artres.2009.10.066
ID  - Melik2009
ER  -