ON THE POSSIBILITY OF PREDICTING HUNTINGTON'S CHOREA BY ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHIC STUDY

In order to study the possibility of demonstrating the presence of the morbid gene among the offspring of patients with Huntington's chorea by electroencephalography before its clinical manifestation, a total of 25 such offspring were submitted to electroencephalographic study. The examination revealed initial signs of Huntington's chorea in 2, both of whom had electroencephalograms (EEGs) of the low-voltage-fast pattern. Among the 23 clinically healthy subjects, definite EEG changes were demonstrable in only one. Another one had an EEG of the low-voltage-fast type, and 5 exhibited minor changes of doubtful significance, whereas in 16 the EEGs were normal in every respect. The writer concludes that this method does not seem to be able to afford a possibility of demonstrating the presence of the morbid gene with anything approaching certainty.