Huntington's chorea is a hereditary disease which is autosomal dominant with full penetrance (gene is on chromosome 4).
Onset of symptoms usually begins around middle age and is insidious and relentlessly progressive. Symptoms include chorea (duh), progressive dementia and death.
Having a parent who has been diagnosed with Huntington's chorea is having a Damocles' sword over your head because it means the person has a 50% chance of being affected.
There is no known treatment for this disorder. counselling and support for the patient and the family are essential. Genetic counselling might be a hairy issue to bring up, even though it might seem like the obvious thing to do.
Named for Dr. George Sumner Huntington (1850-1916), a general practitioner in medicine who had an interest in hereditary chorea and who first described this particular disease in 1872, as a doctor just out of medical school.
Eponymous Syndromes Metanode