Autonomic dysfunction in presymptomatic and early symptomatic Huntington's disease

Objectives - Although autonomic dysfunction was found in advanced Huntington's disease (HD) patients it is not clear whether there is autonomic dysfunction in presymptomatic and early symptomatic HD. Material & methods - Different cardiovascular autonomic tests were performed in 14 presymptomatic HD mutation carriers (PHD), 11 early symptomatic HD patients (EHD) and in 25 sex and age matched controls. Results - We found attenuated response to simple mental arithmetic test (relative heart rate in PHD and EHD was 10% lower than in controls; diastolic pressure was 10.6% lower in EHD than in controls; P < 0.05) and exaggerated response to the late phase of cold pressor test (relative heart rate was 10% higher in PHD and 7% higher in EHD than in controls; P < 0.05). The rest of the cardiovascular autonomic tests did not reveal significant differences between patients and controls. Conclusions - Our results suggest that subtle autonomic dysfunction occurs even in PHD and EHD.