β-Blocker Use and Delayed Onset and Progression of Huntington Disease.

Importance: Huntington disease (HD) is characterized by motor, cognitive, and psychiatric decline. β-Blockers may play a therapeutic role by decreasing enhanced sympathetic tone in HD.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of β-blockers on the timing of motor diagnosis onset and progression of HD symptoms.

Factors Influencing Discharges to Hospice for Patients With Late-Stage Huntington's Disease.

Hospice services for patients with Huntington's disease (HD) are likely beneficial in relieving significant burdens and minimizing costly hospitalizations at the end of life, though there has been little study or clinical guidance on hospice enrollment for patients with HD. The primary objective of this study was to identify clinical, sociodemographic, and system-level factors associated with discharges to hospice compared to other dispositions for hospitalized patients with late-stage HD. These analyses used data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample between the years 2007 and 2011.

Evaluating motor progression of juvenile-onset Huntington's Disease: An Enroll-HD analysis.

Introduction: Juvenile-onset Huntington's disease (JOHD) is characterized by a unique motor phenotype relative to patients with adult-onset Huntington's Disease (AOHD). This study characterized motor progression of JOHD to propose improved outcome measures for this group.

Methods: We used linear mixed effect regression models to compare progression of the Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale (UHDRS) Total Motor Score (TMS) and the chorea score between patients with JOHD and AOHD.

Memantine Use and Cognitive Decline in Huntington's Disease: An Enroll-HD Study.

Background: Memantine is an -methyl--aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist that is used to treat moderate to severe Alzheimer's Dementia (AD) and has been speculated to provide clinical benefits in Huntington's disease (HD).

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of memantine on the trajectory of cognitive decline in individuals with manifest HD.

Methods: Using participants from the Enroll-HD study, the primary analysis compared trajectories in cognition over a 5-year period using linear mixed effect models of prevalent and incident memantine users who were propensity-score-matched with non-users on measures of disease progression and demographics.

Patterns of Evidence-Based Care for the Diagnosis, Staging, and First-line Treatment of Breast Cancer by Race-Ethnicity: A SEER-Medicare Study.

Background: Racial and ethnic disparities in guideline-recommended breast cancer treatment are well documented, however studies including diagnostic and staging procedures necessary to determine treatment indications are lacking. The purpose of this study was to characterize patterns in delivery of evidence-based services for the diagnosis, clinical workup, and first-line treatment of breast cancer by race-ethnicity.

Methods: SEER-Medicare data were used to identify women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer between 2000 and 2017 at age 66 or older (n = 2,15,605).

The effects of antidepressants on depressive symptoms in manifest Huntington's disease.

Objective: Currently there is little evidence to guide the treatment of depression in Huntington's disease (HD). The primary objective was to determine the effectiveness of antidepressant medications on lowering depressive symptom scores in patients with manifest HD. The secondary objective was to determine the effect of antidepressant use on measures of disease progression.

Moderate Intensity Exercise in Pre-manifest Huntington's Disease: Results of a 6 months Trial.

Background: While it has been shown that aerobic exercise interventions are well tolerated in participants with the Huntington disease (HD) gene mutation, no study to date has tested whether an aerobic exercise intervention benefits brain structure and function in pre-manifest HD.

Objective: In this study we utilized magnetic resonance (MR) imaging techniques to assess the efficacy of moderate-to-vigorous exercise treatment relative to active stretching and toning control.

Methods: Forty pre-manifest participants with confirmed HD gene expansion were recruited into a two-arm intervention study that included a moderate-to-vigorous intensity home-based walking exercise intervention (N=34) and an active stretching and toning control intervention (N=6).

COVID-19 Case Fatality and Alzheimer's Disease.

Previous studies have identified dementia as a risk factor for death from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, it is unclear whether Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an independent risk factor for COVID-19 case fatality rate. In a retrospective cohort study, we identified 387,841 COVID-19 patients through TriNetX.

Quantifying the Onset of Unintended Weight Loss in Huntington's Disease: A Retrospective Analysis of Enroll-HD.

Background: Unintended weight loss and decreased body mass indexes (BMIs) are common symptoms of individuals with manifest HD. It is unknown at what point during disease progression weight loss starts to accelerate relative to a healthy individual's weight and when recommended interventions should be initiated to have the strongest impact on patient care.

Objective: The objective of this study was to identify a point in time relative to age at motor onset when the decline in weight in HD starts to accelerate relative to a non-HD population.