Publications by authors named "D Claassen"

Background: Huntington disease (HD) is a genetic neurodegenerative disorder. Given the focus on motor manifestations, nonmotor symptoms are frequently underappreciated in clinical evaluations, despite frequently contributing to primary functional impairment.

Recent Findings: A diagnosis of motor-onset as the definition of manifest symptoms misrepresents the complex nature of HD presentation.

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Background: Central synucleinopathies, including Parkinson's disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), and multiple system atrophy (MSA), involve alpha-synuclein accumulation and dopaminergic cell loss in the substantia nigra (SN) and locus coeruleus (LC). Pure autonomic failure (PAF), a peripheral synucleinopathy, often precedes central synucleinopathies.

Objectives: To assess early brain involvement in PAF using neuromelanin-sensitive magnetic resonance imaging (NM-MRI) and fluorodopa-positron emission tomography (FDOPA-PET), and to determine whether PAF patients with a high likelihood ratio (LR) for conversion to a central synucleinopathy exhibit reduced NM-MRI contrast in the LC and SN compared with controls and low-LR patients.

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Introduction: Chorea is the primary manifestation of Huntington's disease. Different clinicians pursue varied approaches to chorea management, and real-world evidence describing them is needed. The objective of this study was to assess the presence and severity of chorea, chorea pharmacotherapy, and treatment practice, and patterns in a large natural-history cohort with Huntington's disease.

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Objective: Apathy is common in Huntington's disease (HD) and difficult to treat. Multiple recent calls have been made to increase understanding of apathy across the spectrum of HD severity. Functional status is an important outcome in HD trials; however, no consensus currently exists regarding the impact of apathy on functional status in HD.

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Intravenous arachnoid granulations (AGs) are protrusions of the arachnoid membrane into the venous lumen and function as contributors to the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow circuit. Patients with Parkinson disease (PD) often present with accumulation of alpha synuclein. Previous works have provided evidence for neurofluid circulation dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases associated with changes in CSF egress, which may have implications regarding AG morphology.

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