Huntington's Disease
... interacts with other proteins in brain cells where it occurs, and that this interaction ultimately leads to cell death. The dementia in HD is technically called a sub-cortical dementia. This means that a person with HD has difficulty performing a sequence of tasks, especially when distracted. Distracting influences can render a person with HD from completing a task. For example, a person with HD could easily eat in a quiet, spacious environment, but have much difficulty eating in a noisy, crowded room. If the person with HD is also trying to watch tv or listen to the radio, it will render their progress in their task even more. Symptoms of HD that are related to movement(the chorea) include: clumsiness; repeated, irregular movement of eyebrows and forehead; facial grimaces; rigid muscles; apparent loss of balance; trouble walking; uncontrolled movements of arms, legs and rear-end and halting speech. Symptoms related to mental dysfunction may include: having hallucinations( seeing or hearing things that aren’t there); having delusions(false beliefs or ideas); being suspicious without cause(could be related to delusions or hallucinations); neglecting personal appearance(forgetting to change clothes, for example); neglecting personal hygiene(forgetting to brush teeth or shower); neglecting duties(such as not paying bills or not going to work); being depressed(broad symptom); being irritable(brad symptom; behaving irresponsibly, impulsively, or violently (such as driving drunk or staring fights); losing the ability to remember, think logically, or exercise judgement; becoming unaware of who you are, where you are, and what year or day it is. None of the symptoms are unique to HD(and the symptoms labeled broad could not be diagnosed with HD just with them), but the chorea and dementia are the ones that usually push the diagnosis of HD. As time goes on the symptoms become worse, and if the disease is diagnosed at a younger age, it is prone to progress more rapidly. Usually the symptoms start to occur between the ages of thirty-five and fifty, and those diagnosed with it at that time usually live about fifteen more years, but some cases have lasted twice that long, at thirty years. The diagnosis of HD begins with a detailed medical history, and a thorough physical and neurological exam. Family medical history is very important since HD is an inherited disease. MRI(magnetic resource imaging) or CT(computed tomography) scan imaging may be performed to look for degeneration in the ganglia and cortex sections of the brain, the ganglia and cortex being the parts most affected by HD. A genetic test is available for confirmation of the clinical diagnosis. In this test a small blood sample is taken...