F092 Autonomic dysfunction in patients with Huntington’s disease

<h3>Background</h3> Autonomic dysfunction has been described Huntington’s disease (HD), but the involvement of the Autonomic Nervous System has not been clarified yet. <h3>Aims</h3> To describe any changes of cardiovascular autonomic function. <h3>Methods</h3> It is a cross-sectional study, including 16 manifest subjects, compared with 16 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. All subjects underwent to clinical assessment and a complete cardiovascular reflex tests session (CRTs). <h3>Results</h3> During the Tilt Table Test, patients with HD showed a lesser increase in blood pressure values at the 3rd and 10th minute after standing, statistically significant for both systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) at the 3rd minute and for SBP at the 10th minute. During the Valsalva maneuver, patients showed a statistically significant lower overshoot (mean value, range; 28, 20.8-34)] compared to controls (43.5, 35-55.3). During the Handgrip maneuver, the increase in SBP values was lower (21.5, 15.5-32.8) compared to controls (35.5, 29.3-41.8), with a trend towards significance (p-value = 0.053). <h3>Conclusions</h3> HD subjects showed a very mild dysfunction of sympathetic vasoconstrictor efferences with an intact cardiovagal control of heart rate.