TRACK-HD reports baseline findings

TRACK-HD reports baseline findings

Me and my brother are part of this study.

We've been covering the findings that are emerging from the Predict HD study that follows volunteers from pre-manifest status through the progression of the disease. Europe and Canada have their own longitudinal study to document HD progression and discover and validate biomarkers to be used for improved, shorter clinical trials. TRACK-HD has been operating in the UK, Canada, France, and the Netherlands since January 2008 and has now published an analysis of the baseline results

The new study compares volunteer spouses and siblings who do not have the HD gene with pre-manifest gene carriers and people with early stage HD. The pre-manifest gene carriers were divided into two groups at the median estimated number of years to onset. The formula used to estimate years until onset was the Langbehn formula also used in the Predict-HD study. The early stage group was divided into two based on their scores on the total functional capacity scale.

The term pre-manifest has replaced pre-symptomatic to refer to those not yet diagnosed according to standard criteria. Predict HD and other studies have shown that psychiatric and cognitive changes occur before the disease can be diagnosed based on movement symptoms which is how onset has traditionally been defined.