[HTML][HTML] Aspiration pneumonia and death in Huntington's disease

AW Heemskerk, RAC Roos - PLoS currents, 2012 - ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
AW Heemskerk, RAC Roos
PLoS currents, 2012ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Huntington's disease (HD) is a progressive neurodegenerative autosomal dominant disease
characterized by choreatic and hypokinetic movements, disturbed behaviour, and cognitive
decline. Pneumonia is the most common cause of death, followed by cardiovasculair
diseases. It has been suggested that choking is the causative underlying factor for
pneumonia in HD. As a detailed specification of the type of pneumonia has never been
performed, we analyzed the records of our Brain Bank containing 224 cases to determine …
Abstract
Huntington’s disease (HD) is a progressive neurodegenerative autosomal dominant disease characterized by choreatic and hypokinetic movements, disturbed behaviour, and cognitive decline. Pneumonia is the most common cause of death, followed by cardiovasculair diseases. It has been suggested that choking is the causative underlying factor for pneumonia in HD. As a detailed specification of the type of pneumonia has never been performed, we analyzed the records of our Brain Bank containing 224 cases to determine the exact cause of death and type of pneumonia. The conclusion is that the majority (86.8%) of our HD patients where the cause of death could be identified died from aspiration pneumonia.
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