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Migliore S, Bianco SD, Scocchia M, Maffi S, Busi LC, Ceccarelli C, Curcio G, Mazza T, Squitieri F. Prodromal Cognitive Changes as a Prognostic Indicator of Forthcoming Huntington's Disease Severity: A Retrospective Longitudinal Study. Mov Disord Clin Pract 2024; 11:363-372. [PMID: 38264920 PMCID: PMC10982604 DOI: 10.1002/mdc3.13975] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2023] [Revised: 11/30/2023] [Accepted: 01/02/2024] [Indexed: 01/25/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Cognitive changes in Huntington's disease (HD) precede motor manifestations. ENROLL-HD platform includes four cognitive measures of information processing speed (IPS). Our group is eager to seek clinical markers in the life stage that is as close as possible to the age of onset (ie, the so called prodromal HD phase) because this is the best time for therapeutic interventions. OBJECTIVES Our study aimed to test whether cognitive scores in prodromal ENROLL-HD mutation carriers show the potential to predict the severity of motor and behavioral changes once HD became fully manifested. METHODS From the global ENROLL-HD cohort of 21,343 participants, we first selected a premanifest Cohort#1 (ie, subjects with Total Motor Score (TMS) <10 and Diagnostic Confidence Level (DCL) <4, N = 1.222). From this cohort, we then focused on a prodromal Cohort#2 of subjects who were ascertained to phenoconvert into manifest HD at follow-up visits (ie, subjects from 6 ≤ TMS≤9 and DCL <4 to TMS≥10 and DCL = 4, n = 206). RESULTS The main results of our study showed that low IPS before phenoconversion in Cohort#2 predicted the severity of motor and behavioral manifestations. By combining the four IPS cognitive measures (eg, the Categorical Verbal Fluency Test; Stroop Color Naming Test; Stroop Word Reading; Symbol Digit Modalities Test), we generated a Composite Cognition Score (CCS). The lower the CCS score the higher the TMS and the apathy scores in the same longitudinally followed-up patients after phenoconversion. CONCLUSIONS CCS might represent a clinical instrument to predict the prognosis of mutation carriers who are close to manifesting HD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simone Migliore
- Huntington and Rare Diseases Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Casa Sollievo Della Sofferenza HospitalSan Giovanni RotondoItaly
| | | | - Marta Scocchia
- Rare Neurological Diseases Centre (CMNR)Fondazione Italian League for Research on Huntington (LIRH)RomeItaly
| | - Sabrina Maffi
- Huntington and Rare Diseases Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Casa Sollievo Della Sofferenza HospitalSan Giovanni RotondoItaly
| | - Ludovica Camilla Busi
- Rare Neurological Diseases Centre (CMNR)Fondazione Italian League for Research on Huntington (LIRH)RomeItaly
| | - Consuelo Ceccarelli
- Rare Neurological Diseases Centre (CMNR)Fondazione Italian League for Research on Huntington (LIRH)RomeItaly
| | - Giuseppe Curcio
- Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical SciencesUniversity of L'AquilaL'AquilaItaly
| | - Tommaso Mazza
- Bioinformatics Unit, Fondazione IRCCS "Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza"San Giovanni RotondoItaly
| | - Ferdinando Squitieri
- Huntington and Rare Diseases Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Casa Sollievo Della Sofferenza HospitalSan Giovanni RotondoItaly
- Rare Neurological Diseases Centre (CMNR)Fondazione Italian League for Research on Huntington (LIRH)RomeItaly
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Camerino I, Ferreira J, Vonk JM, Kessels RPC, de Leeuw FE, Roelofs A, Copland D, Piai V. Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses of Word Production Abilities in Dysfunction of the Basal Ganglia: Stroke, Small Vessel Disease, Parkinson's Disease, and Huntington's Disease. Neuropsychol Rev 2024; 34:1-26. [PMID: 36564612 DOI: 10.1007/s11065-022-09570-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2022] [Revised: 10/13/2022] [Accepted: 11/16/2022] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Clinical populations with basal ganglia pathologies may present with language production impairments, which are often described in combination with comprehension measures or attributed to motor, memory, or processing-speed problems. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we studied word production in four (vascular and non-vascular) pathologies of the basal ganglia: stroke affecting the basal ganglia, small vessel disease, Parkinson's disease, and Huntington's disease. We compared scores of these clinical populations with those of matched cognitively unimpaired adults on four well-established production tasks, namely picture naming, category fluency, letter fluency, and past-tense verb inflection. We conducted a systematic search in PubMed and PsycINFO with terms for basal ganglia structures, basal ganglia disorders and language production tasks. A total of 114 studies were included, containing results for one or more of the tasks of interest. For each pathology and task combination, effect sizes (Hedges' g) were extracted comparing patient versus control groups. For all four populations, performance was consistently worse than that of cognitively unimpaired adults across the four language production tasks (p-values < 0.010). Given that performance in picture naming and verb inflection across all pathologies was quantified in terms of accuracy, our results suggest that production impairments cannot be fully explained by motor or processing-speed deficits. Our review shows that while language production difficulties in these clinical populations are not negligible, more evidence is necessary to determine the exact mechanism that leads to these deficits and whether this mechanism is the same across different pathologies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ileana Camerino
- Donders Centre for Cognition, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - João Ferreira
- Donders Centre for Cognition, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
| | - Jet M Vonk
- Department of Neurology, Memory and Aging Center, University of California San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA, USA
- Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Roy P C Kessels
- Donders Centre for Cognition, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Vincent van Gogh Institute for Psychiatry, Venray, The Netherlands
- Donders Centre for Medical Neuroscience, Department of Medical Psychology, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Frank-Erik de Leeuw
- Department of Neurology, Donders Centre for Medical Neuroscience, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Ardi Roelofs
- Donders Centre for Cognition, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - David Copland
- School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, QLD, Australia
- Queensland Aphasia Research Centre, The University of Queensland, Herston, QLD, Australia
| | - Vitória Piai
- Donders Centre for Cognition, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Donders Centre for Medical Neuroscience, Department of Medical Psychology, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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Chen A, Li Q, Huang Y, Li Y, Chuang YN, Hu X, Guo S, Wu Y, Guo Y, Bian J. Feasibility of Identifying Factors Related to Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia in Real-World Data. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2024:2024.02.10.24302621. [PMID: 38405723 PMCID: PMC10889002 DOI: 10.1101/2024.02.10.24302621] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/27/2024]
Abstract
A comprehensive view of factors associated with AD/ADRD will significantly aid in studies to develop new treatments for AD/ADRD and identify high-risk populations and patients for prevention efforts. In our study, we summarized the risk factors for AD/ADRD by reviewing existing meta-analyses and review articles on risk and preventive factors for AD/ADRD. In total, we extracted 477 risk factors in 10 categories from 537 studies. We constructed an interactive knowledge map to disseminate our study results. Most of the risk factors are accessible from structured Electronic Health Records (EHRs), and clinical narratives show promise as information sources. However, evaluating genomic risk factors using RWD remains a challenge, as genetic testing for AD/ADRD is still not a common practice and is poorly documented in both structured and unstructured EHRs. Considering the constantly evolving research on AD/ADRD risk factors, literature mining via NLP methods offers a solution to automatically update our knowledge map.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aokun Chen
- Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, University of Florida, 1889 Museum Rd, Suite 7000, Gainesville, FL 32610
| | - Qian Li
- Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, University of Florida, 1889 Museum Rd, Suite 7000, Gainesville, FL 32610
| | - Yu Huang
- Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, University of Florida, 1889 Museum Rd, Suite 7000, Gainesville, FL 32610
| | - Yongqiu Li
- Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, University of Florida, 1889 Museum Rd, Suite 7000, Gainesville, FL 32610
| | - Yu-Neng Chuang
- Department of Computer Science, George R. Brown School of Engineering, Rice University, 6100 Main St., Houston, TX 77005
| | - Xia Hu
- Department of Computer Science, George R. Brown School of Engineering, Rice University, 6100 Main St., Houston, TX 77005
| | - Serena Guo
- Department of Pharmaceutical Outcomes & Policy, College of Pharmacy, University of Florida, 1225 Center Drive, Gainesville, FL 32610
| | - Yonghui Wu
- Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, University of Florida, 1889 Museum Rd, Suite 7000, Gainesville, FL 32610
| | - Yi Guo
- Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, University of Florida, 1889 Museum Rd, Suite 7000, Gainesville, FL 32610
| | - Jiang Bian
- Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, University of Florida, 1889 Museum Rd, Suite 7000, Gainesville, FL 32610
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Clarke AJ, Manser D, Fleischer R, Fulham M, Ahmed RM. Pearls & Oy-sters: Huntington Disease Presenting as Primary Progressive Aphasia: A Case of Semantics. Neurology 2023; 101:414-417. [PMID: 37202171 PMCID: PMC10501099 DOI: 10.1212/wnl.0000000000207428] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2022] [Accepted: 04/04/2023] [Indexed: 05/20/2023] Open
Abstract
We present a case of semantic variant primary progressive aphasia as the presenting feature in a patient with Huntington disease (HD). The patient initially developed progressive language impairment including impaired naming and object knowledge and single-word comprehension and then developed chorea and behavioral changes. An MRI of the brain showed left anterior temporal lobe and hippocampal atrophy. A neurologic FDG PET/CT showed reduced metabolism in the head of the left caudate nucleus. Huntingtin gene testing revealed an expansion of 39 CAG repeats in 1 allele. This case outlines the substantial overlap between the clinical presentation of HD and frontotemporal lobar degeneration syndromes and provides commentary on the investigation of these neurodegenerative diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonia J Clarke
- From the Faculty of Medicine and Health (A.J.C., R.M.A.), University of Sydney; Department of Neurology (A.J.C., D.M., M.F., R.M.A.), Genetics Department (R.F.), and Department of Molecular Imaging (M.F.), Royal Prince Alfred Hospital; and Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science (M.F.), University of Sydney, Australia.
| | - David Manser
- From the Faculty of Medicine and Health (A.J.C., R.M.A.), University of Sydney; Department of Neurology (A.J.C., D.M., M.F., R.M.A.), Genetics Department (R.F.), and Department of Molecular Imaging (M.F.), Royal Prince Alfred Hospital; and Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science (M.F.), University of Sydney, Australia
| | - Ronald Fleischer
- From the Faculty of Medicine and Health (A.J.C., R.M.A.), University of Sydney; Department of Neurology (A.J.C., D.M., M.F., R.M.A.), Genetics Department (R.F.), and Department of Molecular Imaging (M.F.), Royal Prince Alfred Hospital; and Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science (M.F.), University of Sydney, Australia
| | - Michael Fulham
- From the Faculty of Medicine and Health (A.J.C., R.M.A.), University of Sydney; Department of Neurology (A.J.C., D.M., M.F., R.M.A.), Genetics Department (R.F.), and Department of Molecular Imaging (M.F.), Royal Prince Alfred Hospital; and Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science (M.F.), University of Sydney, Australia
| | - Rebekah M Ahmed
- From the Faculty of Medicine and Health (A.J.C., R.M.A.), University of Sydney; Department of Neurology (A.J.C., D.M., M.F., R.M.A.), Genetics Department (R.F.), and Department of Molecular Imaging (M.F.), Royal Prince Alfred Hospital; and Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science (M.F.), University of Sydney, Australia
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Sturchio A, Duker AP, Muñoz-Sanjuan I, Espay AJ. Subtyping monogenic disorders: Huntington disease. HANDBOOK OF CLINICAL NEUROLOGY 2023; 193:171-184. [PMID: 36803810 DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-323-85555-6.00003-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/18/2023]
Abstract
Huntington disease is a highly disabling neurodegenerative disease characterized by psychiatric, cognitive, and motor deficits. The causal genetic mutation in huntingtin (Htt, also known as IT15), located on chromosome 4p16.3, leads to an expansion of a triplet coding for polyglutamine. The expansion is invariably associated with the disease when >39 repeats. Htt encodes for the protein huntingtin (HTT), which carries out many essential biological functions in the cell, in particular in the nervous system. The precise mechanism of toxicity is not known. Based on a one-gene-one-disease framework, the prevailing hypothesis ascribes toxicity to the universal aggregation of HTT. However, the aggregation process into mutant huntingtin (mHTT) is associated with a reduction of the levels of wild-type HTT. A loss of wild-type HTT may plausibly be pathogenic, contributing to the disease onset and progressive neurodegeneration. Moreover, many other biological pathways are altered in Huntington disease, such as in the autophagic system, mitochondria, and essential proteins beyond HTT, potentially explaining biological and clinical differences among affected individuals. As one gene does not mean one disease, future efforts at identifying specific Huntington subtypes are important to design biologically tailored therapeutic approaches that correct the corresponding biological pathways-rather than continuing to exclusively target the common denominator of HTT aggregation for elimination.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Sturchio
- James J. and Joan A. Gardner Family Center for Parkinson's disease and Movement Disorders, Department of Neurology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, United States; Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Neuro Svenningsson, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
| | - Andrew P Duker
- James J. and Joan A. Gardner Family Center for Parkinson's disease and Movement Disorders, Department of Neurology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, United States
| | | | - Alberto J Espay
- James J. and Joan A. Gardner Family Center for Parkinson's disease and Movement Disorders, Department of Neurology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, United States.
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Comorbidities and clinical outcomes in adult- and juvenile-onset Huntington's disease: a study of linked Swedish National Registries (2002-2019). J Neurol 2023; 270:864-876. [PMID: 36253622 PMCID: PMC9886595 DOI: 10.1007/s00415-022-11418-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2022] [Revised: 09/30/2022] [Accepted: 10/02/2022] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Huntington's disease (HD) is a rare, neurodegenerative disease and its complex motor, cognitive and psychiatric symptoms exert a lifelong clinical burden on both patients and their families. OBJECTIVE To describe the clinical burden and natural history of HD. METHODS This longitudinal cohort study used data from the linked Swedish national registries to describe the occurrence of comorbidities (acute and chronic), symptomatic treatments and mortality in an incident cohort of individuals who either received the first diagnosis of HD above (adult onset HD; AoHD) or below (juvenile-onset HD; JoHD) 20 years of age, compared with a matched cohort without HD from the general population. Disease burden of all individuals alive in Sweden was described during a single calendar year (2018), including the occurrence of key symptoms, treatments and hospitalizations. RESULTS The prevalence of HD in 2018 was approximately 10.2 per 100,000. Of 1492 individuals with a diagnosis of HD during 2002 and 2018, 1447 had AoHD and 45 had JoHD. Individuals with AoHD suffered a higher incidence of obsessive-compulsive disorder, acute psychotic episodes, pneumonia, constipation and fractures compared with matched controls. Individuals with JoHD had higher incidence rates of epilepsy, constipation and acute respiratory symptoms. Median time to all-cause mortality in AoHD was 12.1 years from diagnosis. Patients alive with HD in Sweden in 2018 displayed a pattern of increased clinical burden for a number of years since diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates the significant and progressive clinical burden in individuals with HD and presents novel insights into the natural history of JoHD.
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Cuteri V, Minori G, Gagliardi G, Tamburini F, Malaspina E, Gualandi P, Rossi F, Moscano M, Francia V, Parmeggiani A. Linguistic feature of anorexia nervosa: a prospective case-control pilot study. Eat Weight Disord 2022; 27:1367-1375. [PMID: 34309776 PMCID: PMC8311399 DOI: 10.1007/s40519-021-01273-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2021] [Accepted: 07/14/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE Attention has recently been paid to Clinical Linguistics for the detection and support of clinical conditions. Many works have been published on the "linguistic profile" of various clinical populations, but very few papers have been devoted to linguistic changes in patients with eating disorders. Patients with Anorexia Nervosa (AN) share similar psychological features such as disturbances in self-perceived body image, inflexible and obsessive thinking and anxious or depressive traits. We hypothesize that these characteristics can result in altered linguistic patterns and be detected using the Natural Language Processing tools. METHODS We enrolled 51 young participants from December 2019 to February 2020 (age range: 14-18): 17 girls with a clinical diagnosis of AN, and 34 normal-weighted peers, matched by gender, age and educational level. Participants in each group were asked to produce three written texts (around 10-15 lines long). A rich set of linguistic features was extracted from the text samples and the statistical significance in pinpointing the pathological process was measured. RESULTS Comparison between the two groups showed several linguistics indexes as statistically significant, with syntactic reduction as the most relevant trait of AN productions. In particular, the following features emerge as statistically significant in distinguishing AN girls and their normal-weighted peers: the length of the sentences, the complexity of the noun phrase, and the global syntactic complexity. This peculiar pattern of linguistic erosion may be due to the severe metabolic impairment also affecting the central nervous system in AN. CONCLUSION These preliminary data showed the existence of linguistic parameters as probable linguistic markers of AN. However, the analysis of a bigger cohort, still ongoing, is needed to consolidate this assumption. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE III Evidence obtained from case-control analytic studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vittoria Cuteri
- Regional Center of Feeding and Eating Disorders in developmental age, Child Neurology and Psychiatry Unit, IRCCS Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.,Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Giulia Minori
- Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Gloria Gagliardi
- Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Fabio Tamburini
- Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Elisabetta Malaspina
- Regional Center of Feeding and Eating Disorders in developmental age, Child Neurology and Psychiatry Unit, IRCCS Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Paola Gualandi
- Regional Center of Feeding and Eating Disorders in developmental age, Child Neurology and Psychiatry Unit, IRCCS Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Francesca Rossi
- Regional Center of Feeding and Eating Disorders in developmental age, Child Neurology and Psychiatry Unit, IRCCS Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Milena Moscano
- Regional Center of Feeding and Eating Disorders in developmental age, Child Neurology and Psychiatry Unit, IRCCS Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Valentina Francia
- Regional Center of Feeding and Eating Disorders in developmental age, Child Neurology and Psychiatry Unit, IRCCS Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Antonia Parmeggiani
- Regional Center of Feeding and Eating Disorders in developmental age, Child Neurology and Psychiatry Unit, IRCCS Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, Bologna, Italy. .,Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
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Watson KH, Ciriegio AE, Pfalzer AC, Hale L, Jones MT, Brown B, Grice V, Moroz S, McDonell KE, Claassen DO, Compas BE. Neurobiological and Psychosocial Correlates of Communication Between Huntington's Disease Patients and Their Offspring. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 2021; 33:321-327. [PMID: 34280320 DOI: 10.1176/appi.neuropsych.20120309] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease that presents significant challenges to family communication. The investigators examined observations of communication between parents with HD and their offspring talking about the challenges of HD and explored potential correlates of their communication. METHODS The sample included parents with HD and their adolescent and young-adult offspring (N=64). Parent communication and chorea were independently coded from video recordings. Parents and offspring completed working memory assessments and self-reports of neuropsychiatric symptoms, stress, and coping. RESULTS Evidence was found for the association of observed parent-offspring communication with disease markers, psychosocial characteristics, and neurocognitive function. For parents, disease markers and working memory were correlates of communication, whereas offspring's psychiatric symptoms, stress, and coping were associated with their communication. CONCLUSIONS These findings have potential implications for clinical interventions to enhance communication and quality of life for HD families.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kelly H Watson
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. (Watson, Ciriegio, Jones, Grice, Compas); and Department of Neurology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn. (Pfalzer, Hale, Brown, Moroz, McDonell, Claassen)
| | - Abagail E Ciriegio
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. (Watson, Ciriegio, Jones, Grice, Compas); and Department of Neurology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn. (Pfalzer, Hale, Brown, Moroz, McDonell, Claassen)
| | - Anna C Pfalzer
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. (Watson, Ciriegio, Jones, Grice, Compas); and Department of Neurology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn. (Pfalzer, Hale, Brown, Moroz, McDonell, Claassen)
| | - Lisa Hale
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. (Watson, Ciriegio, Jones, Grice, Compas); and Department of Neurology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn. (Pfalzer, Hale, Brown, Moroz, McDonell, Claassen)
| | - Maile T Jones
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. (Watson, Ciriegio, Jones, Grice, Compas); and Department of Neurology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn. (Pfalzer, Hale, Brown, Moroz, McDonell, Claassen)
| | - Brittany Brown
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. (Watson, Ciriegio, Jones, Grice, Compas); and Department of Neurology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn. (Pfalzer, Hale, Brown, Moroz, McDonell, Claassen)
| | - Victoria Grice
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. (Watson, Ciriegio, Jones, Grice, Compas); and Department of Neurology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn. (Pfalzer, Hale, Brown, Moroz, McDonell, Claassen)
| | - Sarah Moroz
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. (Watson, Ciriegio, Jones, Grice, Compas); and Department of Neurology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn. (Pfalzer, Hale, Brown, Moroz, McDonell, Claassen)
| | - Katherine E McDonell
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. (Watson, Ciriegio, Jones, Grice, Compas); and Department of Neurology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn. (Pfalzer, Hale, Brown, Moroz, McDonell, Claassen)
| | - Daniel O Claassen
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. (Watson, Ciriegio, Jones, Grice, Compas); and Department of Neurology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn. (Pfalzer, Hale, Brown, Moroz, McDonell, Claassen)
| | - Bruce E Compas
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. (Watson, Ciriegio, Jones, Grice, Compas); and Department of Neurology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn. (Pfalzer, Hale, Brown, Moroz, McDonell, Claassen)
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Grimstvedt TN, Miller JU, van Walsem MR, Feragen KJB. Speech and language difficulties in Huntington's disease: A qualitative study of patients' and professional caregivers' experiences. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE & COMMUNICATION DISORDERS 2021; 56:330-345. [PMID: 33577706 DOI: 10.1111/1460-6984.12604] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2020] [Revised: 01/05/2021] [Accepted: 01/11/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by a triad of motor, cognitive and psychological symptoms, leading to a gradual breakdown of communication skills. Few studies have investigated how people affected by HD and their professional caregivers, for example, medical doctors, physiotherapists and nurses, experience the patients' gradual loss of speech and language. AIMS To examine communication-related experiences of patients and professional caregivers. Experiences with speech therapy and the use of augmentative and alternative communication aids (AAC) were also investigated. METHODS & PROCEDURES Seven individuals with HD and seven professional caregivers were interviewed individually, using a semi-structured interview guide. Transcripts were analysed using a conventional content analysis, and the results presented in three main categories. OUTCOMES & RESULTS Most individuals with HD were aware of having communication difficulties, struggling with understanding others as well as being understood. This was confirmed by professional caregivers, who also raised ethical issues encountered when patients struggled with communication. Both groups talked about external factors (such as noise or crowded social settings) as disrupting communication, and shared recommendations on how people in general, and speech and language therapists (SLTs) in particular, could optimize communication. Very few patients had received information about communication aids, and none was using AACs. Professional caregivers underlined the importance of interdisciplinary collaborations, including SLTs, in order to optimize care. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS Findings shed a light on everyday communication challenges faced by people with HD and their professional caregivers, and the lack of implementation of communication aids in this group. The dramatic impact of HD on patients' communication skills underscores the need to include SLTs in the follow-up of this patient group, ideally from the early stages of the disease, while the patient is still capable of voicing his/her own wishes and thoughts. Future research that explores how to optimize communication and implement the use of AACs for individuals with HD is needed. What this paper adds What is already known on this subject Although the ability to communicate gradually deteriorates in individuals affected by Huntington's disease (HD), there is little knowledge about how affected individuals experience the loss of speech and language skills. Interdisciplinary care is recognised as essential for this patient group. However, professional caregivers' thoughts and experiences of communicating with their patients have not been fully explored. Recent years have seen a rapid growth of available communication supporting technologies that could potentially be helpful for individuals with HD, but limited attention has been given to this subject. What this paper adds to existing knowledge What do we now know as a result of this study that we did not know before the results highlight that patients are aware of problems with speech and language even in early phases of the disease, and include patients' personal outlook on problems with communication. Professional caregivers raised ethical issues encountered when patients struggled with communication. Both groups described specific strategies that could facilitate communication. There was a significant lack of experience and knowledge about augmentative and alternative communication aids (AACs). What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Clinical implications of this study. The introduction of communication aids in the follow-up of patients with HD needs to be discussed with the patients in the early phases of the disease, and implemented while the individual still has the capacity to learn and take advantage of alternative communication support. Results underline the importance of including speech and language therapists (SLTs) into multidisciplinary care of patients with HD. SLTs should be available also for professional caregivers who need advice on how to facilitate conversations and social interactions, in order to optimise care of patients with HD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thea Nygaard Grimstvedt
- Department of Special Needs Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | | | - Marleen Regina van Walsem
- Department of Neurohabilitation, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- Department of Neurology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- Centre for Habilitation and Rehabilitation Models and Services, Institute for Health and Society, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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Carlozzi NE, Boileau NR, Roberts A, Dayalu P, Hanifan DL, Miner JA, Claassen D, Provost EM. Understanding speech and swallowing difficulties in individuals with Huntington disease: Validation of the HDQLIFE Speech Difficulties and Swallowing Difficulties Item Banks. Qual Life Res 2021; 30:251-265. [PMID: 32839864 PMCID: PMC7854808 DOI: 10.1007/s11136-020-02608-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/07/2020] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE As Huntington disease (HD) progresses, speech and swallowing difficulties become more profound. These difficulties have an adverse effect on health-related quality of life (HRQOL), thus psychometrically robust measures of speech and swallowing are needed to better understand the impact of these domains across the course of the disease. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to establish the clinical utility of two new patient-reported outcome measures (PROs), HDQLIFE Speech Difficulties and HDQLIFE Swallowing Difficulties. METHODS Thirty-one participants with premanifest or manifest HD, and 31 age- and sex-matched healthy control participants were recruited for this study. Participants completed several PROs [HDQLIFE Speech Difficulties, HDQLIFE Swallowing Difficulties, Communication Participation Item Bank (CPIB)], as well as several clinician-rated assessments of speech and functioning. A computational algorithm designed to detect features of spoken discourse was also examined. Analyses were focused on establishing the reliability and validity of these new measures. RESULTS Internal consistency was good for Swallowing (Cronbach's alpha = 0.89) and excellent for Speech and the CPIB (both Cronbach's alpha ≥ 0.94), and convergent/discriminant validity was supported. Known groups validity for the PROs was supported by significant group differences among control participants and persons with different stages of HD (all p < 0.0001). All PROs were able to distinguish those with and without clinician-rated dysarthria (likelihood ratios far exceeded the threshold for clinical decision making [all ≥ 3.28]). CONCLUSIONS Findings support the clinical utility of the HDQLIFE Speech and Swallowing PROs and the CPIB for use across the HD disease spectrum. These PROs also have the potential to be clinically useful in other populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Noelle E Carlozzi
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Michigan, North Campus Research Complex, 2800 Plymouth Road, Building NCRC B14, Room G216, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-2800, USA.
| | - Nicholas R Boileau
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Michigan, North Campus Research Complex, 2800 Plymouth Road, Building NCRC B14, Room G216, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-2800, USA
| | - Angela Roberts
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
| | - Praveen Dayalu
- Department of Neurology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Dana L Hanifan
- Department of Speech-Language Pathology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Jennifer A Miner
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Michigan, North Campus Research Complex, 2800 Plymouth Road, Building NCRC B14, Room G216, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-2800, USA
| | - Daniel Claassen
- Department of Neurology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Emily Mower Provost
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
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11
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Tovar A, Garí Soler A, Ruiz-Idiago J, Mareca Viladrich C, Pomarol-Clotet E, Rosselló J, Hinzen W. Language disintegration in spontaneous speech in Huntington's disease: a more fine-grained analysis. JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION DISORDERS 2020; 83:105970. [PMID: 32062158 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2019.105970] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2018] [Revised: 11/26/2019] [Accepted: 12/01/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disease causing motor symptoms along with cognitive and affective problems. Recent evidence suggests that HD also affects language across core levels of linguistic organization, including at stages of the disease when standardized neuropsychological test profiles are still normal and motor symptoms do not yet reach clinical thresholds ('pre-manifest HD'). The present study aimed to subject spontaneous speech to a more fine-grained linguistic analysis in a sample of 20 identified HD gene-carriers, 10 with pre-manifest and 10 with early manifest HD. We further explored how language performance related to non-linguistic cognitive impairment, using standardized neuropsychological measures. A distinctive pattern of linguistic impairments marked off participants with both pre-manifest and manifest HD from healthy controls and each other. Fluency patterns in premanifest HD were marked by prolongations, filled pauses, and repetitions, which shifted to a pattern marked by empty (unfilled) pauses, re-phrasings, and truncations in manifest HD. Both HD groups also significantly differed from controls and each other in how they grammatically connected clauses and used noun phrases referentially. Functional deficits in language occurred in pre-manifest HD in the absence of any non-linguistic neuropsychological impairment and did largely not correlate with standardized neuropsychological measures in manifest HD. These results further corroborate that language can act as a fine-grained clinical marker in HD, which can track disease progression from the pre-manifest stage, define critical remediation targets, and inform the role of the basal ganglia in language processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonia Tovar
- Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
| | | | - Jesús Ruiz-Idiago
- Department of Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Neuropsychiatry Unit, Hospital Mare de Déu de la Mercè, Barcelona, Spain; FIDMAG Germanes Hospitalàries Research Foundation, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Celia Mareca Viladrich
- Neuropsychiatry Unit, Hospital Mare de Déu de la Mercè, Barcelona, Spain; FIDMAG Germanes Hospitalàries Research Foundation, Barcelona, Spain
| | | | - Joana Rosselló
- Department of Catalan Philology and General Linguistics, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Wolfram Hinzen
- Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain; FIDMAG Germanes Hospitalàries Research Foundation, Barcelona, Spain; ICREA (Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies), Barcelona, Spain.
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Khan H, Ullah H, Tundis R, Belwal T, Devkota HP, Daglia M, Cetin Z, Saygili EI, Campos MDG, Capanoglu E, Du M, Dar P, Xiao J. Dietary Flavonoids in the Management of Huntington’s Disease: Mechanism and Clinical Perspective. EFOOD 2020. [DOI: 10.2991/efood.k.200203.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
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