More about huntington’s disease
In some individuals, the disease may begin with uncontrolled movements in the fingers, feet, face, or trunk. These movements–which are signs of chorea–often intensify when the person is anxious.
HD is a familial disease, passed from parent to child through a mutation in the normal gene. Each child of an HD parent has a 50-50 chance of inheriting the huntington’s disease gene. If a child does not inherit the HD gene, he or she will not develop the disease and cannot pass it to subsequent generations.
Presymptomatic testing is used for people who have a family history of HD but have no symptoms themselves.
As the gene is passed down through families, the number of repeats tend to get larger. The larger the number of repeats, the greater your chance of developing symptoms at an earlier age. Therefore, as the disease is passed along in families, symptoms develop at younger and younger ages.
Categorised as: General