Objective. Huntington’s disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disease that is accompanied by a progressive movement disorder and changes in weight. It is the purpose of this present study to investigate how weight change relates to specific measures of disease characteristics in the OSU HD population over a 5-year period.
Methods. A retrospective chart review of patients attending the OSU HD clinic between 2005 and 2011 was performed. Statistical analysis was used to show correlation between weight change and independent variables, represented as change scores. A two-sided hypothesis test was used to determine if the correlation between weight change and the change in other variables was significant.
Results. A total of 186 patient charts were available for review. Lower body weight was correlated significantly with worsening total motor score, chorea score, and dystonia score (p=0.000, p=0.018, p=0.000). Tongue protrusion score did not correlate with body weight (p>0.05). Class of medication use did not significantly correlate with body weight changes and thus was ruled out as a significant contributing factor to weight change.
Conclusions. Our results show that there is a significant correlation between a decrease in weight and worsening chorea, dystonia, and total motor scores.