Huntington Disease in Asia

• Published in: Chinese medical journal 2015-07, Vol.128 (13), p.1815-1819
• Main Authors: Xu, Miao, Wu, Zhi-Ying
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Asia - epidemiology; Ataxia; Care and treatment; China; Genotype; Huntington Disease; Phenotype; Clinical trials; CNKI; Dementia; Diagnosis; Epidemiology; Families & family life; Family medical history; Genetic polymorphisms; Genotype; Haplotypes - genetics; Health aspects; Hospitals; Humans; Huntington Disease - epidemiology; Huntington Disease - genetics; Huntington's disease; Huntingtons disease; Neurology; Phenotype; Population; PubMed数据库; Review; Studies; White people; 中国大陆; 临床医生; 亚洲国家; 亨廷顿病; 国家知识基础设施; 流行病学
• ISSN: 0366-6999; 2542-5641
• DOI: 10.4103/0366-6999.159359

Objective： The objective was to review the major di fferences of Huntington disease （HD） in Asian population fiom those in the Caucasian population. Data Sources： Data cited in this review were obtained from PubMed database and China National Knowledge Infrastructure （CN KI） fiom 1994 to 2014. All the papers were written in English or Chinese languages, with the terms of Asia/Asian, H D, genotype, epidemiology, phenotype, and treatment used for the literature search. Study Selection： From the PubMed database, we included the articles and reviews which contained the HD patients＇ data from Asian countries. From the CNKI, we excluded the papers which were not original research. Due to tile language＇s restrictions, those data published in other languages were not included. Results： In total, 50 papers were cited in this review, authors of which were from tile mainland of China, .lapan, India, Thailand, Taiwan （China）, Korea, and western countries. Conclusions： The lower epidemiology in Asians can be partly explained by the less cytosine-adenine-guanine repeats, different haplotypes, and CCG polymorphisms. For the physicians, atypical clinical profiles such as the initial symptom of ataxia, movement abnormalities of Parkinsonism, dystonia, or tics need to be paid more attention to and suggest gene testing if necessary. Moreover, some pathogenesis studies may help progress some new advanced treatments. The clinicians in Asian especially in China should promote the usage of genetic testing and put more effects in rehabilitation, palliative care, and offer comfort of patients and their families. The unified HD rating scale also needs to be popularized in Asia to assist in evaluating the progression of HD.