[Huntington's disease]

Abstract

Huntington's disease and/or chorea (HD) is autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease that never skips generations. The first description was provided by George Huntington in the year 1872. Its prevalence in the world is 8-10 per 100000 inhabitants and in Croatia 4.46 per 100 000 inhabitants. It starts between 30 and 50 years of age and ends after 15-20 years with death. It is a disease of CAG triplet repeats and is characterized by poliglutamine repeats. The number of CAG trinucleotid repeats correlates with the age of the onset of the first symptoms, as well as with the clinical picture. The selective therapy for Huntington's chorea still does not exists and for symptomatic treatment the blockers of dopamine have turned out to be the most useful.