Examination of Quantitative Electroencephalographic (QEEG) Biomarkers in Huntington's Disease
Condition: Huntington's Disease
MeSH terms: Huntington Disease
Study type: Observational

Summary: 
      The pace of basic science research defining the mechanisms of selective neuronal degeneration
      in Huntington disease (HD) has far exceeded the pace of translation of this information into
      clinically effective treatments for the disease. One reason for this bottleneck between bench
      and bedside is the paucity of available surrogate markers for HD. Identification of surrogate
      markers is critical for the design of future clinical trials. Such markers could provide a
      reliable signal of early brain dysfunction in HD and could be used as a biomarker in trials
      of agents that could prevent onset or delay progression of disease.

      Frontal-subcortical networks are known to be affected in HD and contribute to the cognitive
      dysfunction characteristic of the disease. Quantitative EEG (QEEG) can be used to assess the
      integrity of this circuitry; characteristic QEEG abnormalities long have been known to be
      present in the early stages of the illness (Bylsma et al., 1994). More recent research has
      suggested that a comprehensive topographic approach to QEEG analysis may reveal additional
      changes in brain activity (Bellotti et al., 2004) that may be indicative of subclinical
      disease (de Tommaso et al., 2003). This proposal aims to determine whether quantitative EEG
      techniques can be used to identify HD-specific abnormalities and thus serve as surrogate
      markers of disease.

      The goals of this pilot project are three-fold. First, we will determine if there are QEEG
      differences between normal control subjects and those with mild or moderate HD. Second, we
      will examine associations between severity of HD and the QEEG differences detected and
      determine if these QEEG differences are present when comparing the least affected HD subjects
      and normal controls. Third, we will examine associations between QEEG variables of interest
      and other clinical variables, including age of onset of symptoms, number of CAG repeats,
      severity of motor and behavioral symptoms as measured by the Unified Huntington Disease
      Rating Scale (UHDRS) subscores, and severity of cognitive impairment as measured by the
      cognitive subscore of the UHDRS and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE).
    

Detailed description: 
      We will examine three subject groups in this study: those with mild HD, those with moderate
      HD, and normal controls. Fifteen subjects will be examined in each group, for an overall
      total of forty-five subjects. HD subjects will be recruited from the UCLA Huntington Disease
      Center of Excellence where they have been followed with serial neurologic examinations and
      completion of all portions of the UHDRS every 6-12 months. Subjects that have been given a
      diagnosis of HD based on appropriate motor signs and a confirmatory genetic test or a known
      family history of HD will be invited to participate. Healthy control subjects will be
      recruited from the clinic as well through spouses or other unaffected relatives of patients.
      In addition, control subject data acquired from previous studies will be used after matching
      for age. All subjects will be over the age of 21 and free of other medical illnesses that
      could also affect brain function and will be able to give informed consent. Mild HD is
      defined as having Total Functional Capacity [TFC] scores on the UHDRS of 11-13, moderate is
      defined as TFC of 7-10, and normal control subjects will be free of any neurologic or
      psychiatric illness. Subjects will be free of antipsychotic or antidepressant medications,
      benzodiazepines, or other medications known to affect central nervous system function for at
      least 10 days prior to QEEG examination.

      All subjects will undergo QEEG recording in a manner similar to that employed clinically,
      using procedures that have been approved in other protocols by the UCLA Medical IRB and that
      are consistent with standard clinical EEG procedures promulgated by ABRET (American Board of
      Registered Electroencephalographic Technologists). Recording electrodes are applied to the
      scalp using an electrode cap (ElectroCap, Inc., Eaton OH); electrodes are arrayed to record
      electrical activity from all major brain regions using a standard extension of the
      International 10-20 system (figure 1). Recording electrodes are connected to an isolation
      amplifier that is part of the digital EEG system (NuAmp System, NeuroScan, Inc., El Paso,
      TX). Data are recorded in real-time on computer disk. During recording, subjects will be
      resting in a quiet room with subdued lighting, in the eyes-closed, maximally alert state; the
      EEG technologists will alert the subjects whenever drowsiness is evident on the computer
      monitor. Data will be displayed in real-time on a computer monitor during recording, with
      adjustable filtering and amplification to facilitate identification of EEG patterns as well
      as artifact. Data will be collected using a bandpass filter of 0.3 to 70 Hz, and will be
      digitized at a rate of 250 samples/channel/second. Data will be recorded with a Pz
      referential montage, and the NeuroScan software then will reformat the data into bipolar
      montages as needed for the cordance calculations. Three EOG leads will be used (RIO-A2,
      ROC-A2, and LOC-A1) so that lateral, horizontal, or oblique eye movement artifact may be
      detected easily. Data for quantitative analysis will be selected from the data recorded
      according to standard procedures: each EEG will be reviewed by a technician and the first
      20-32 seconds of artifact-free data will be selected to be processed to obtain absolute and
      relative power in four frequency bands (0.5-4 Hz, 4-8 Hz, 8-12 Hz, and 12-20 Hz) after the
      selections are confirmed by a second technician; both technicians will be blinded to clinical
      status while making or reviewing the selections.

      Two QEEG measures will be calculated for each subject. The first of these is cordance, which
      will be calculated using an algorithm that has been detailed elsewhere (Leuchter et al.,
      1999). Cordance is based upon a normalization of absolute and relative power values across
      all electrode sites and all frequency bands for a given recording. Cordance values have a
      stronger association with cerebral perfusion in brain tissue underlying each electrode site
      than do standard QEEG power measures. The second QEEG measure to be examined is QEEG
      coherence (Leuchter et al., 1992; 1994b), a measure of the shared functional activity between
      brain regions. Coherence values range between 0 - 1 and are analogous to a correlation
      coefficient, with values near 1 signifying highly coordinated cerebral activity. Coherence
      reflects not only cortical activity, but also the function of deep gray matter structures
      that coordinate cortical activity as well as white-matter tracts connecting brain regions.
    

Observational model: Case-Control
Time perspective: Cross-Sectional
Sampling method: Non-Probability Sample
Study population: 
        30 subjects with mild or moderate Huntington's Disease and 15 healthy normal controls
      
Keywords: encephalography; quantitative; biomarkers