Huntington's Disease Research Paper

How Is Huntington’s Disease Diagnosed How do physicians diagnose patients with certain disease? How can they be sure about the right diagnosis? And can they be mistaken? Of course it is possible to miss diagnose a patient, and it can be for numerous and various reasons. For example patients could lie about something they took, or doctors can be somehow intimidating, so the patients will not feel comfortable enough to share their problems with their doctor, and so many other reasons. As any other disease, Huntington’s have a number of symptoms and indications that a doctor can recognize, and based on he can run some tests to confirm the diagnosis. Scientists identified the defective gene that causes Huntington’s disease in 1993. (1) A diagnostic genetic test is now available. (1) The test can confirm the defective gene for Huntington protein is the cause of symptoms in people with suspected Huntington’s disease and can detect the defective gene in patients who do not yet have symptoms but at …show more content…
So the doctor begins to ask several questions to get more detailed information about the patients and symptoms they have. Some information can be irrelevant to the diagnosis but still the physician has to be thorough and cover everything so later on he can rule out the unnecessary details. Also the physician need to take the family history to rule out genetic diseases or to take them into consideration. Here in this case of Huntington’s disease the specialist will ask about the patients’ symptoms, such as whether they have had recent emotional problems, to see if it is likely they have Huntington’s disease and to rule out similar conditions. The doctor may also examine the patients and test their thinking, eye movements, balance, walking, and whether they have any involuntary movements, such as chorea (fidgety or jerky movements).