Objective: Huntington’s disease is an inherited progressive neurodegenerative disease. While asymptomatic in the early disease course, neurodegeneration is progressing. In order to develop and test putative neuroprotective approaches sensitive biomarkers are needed.
Methods: 7 presymptomatic Huntington mutation carriers and 7 age-matched healthy control subjects were recruited. Diffusion weighted MRI was acquired with 60 diffusion directions. MRI diffusion parameters were compared between groups in an alignment-invariant tract representation of the white matter tracts (TBSS).
Results: Reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) was found in the frontal corpus callosum. Within this cluster neurodegeneration score derived from disease duration and CAG repeat significantly correlated with FA.
Discussion: Diffusion parameters represent neurodegeneration and are promising biomarkers in preclinical Huntington’s disease.
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