Novel Nut and Bolt Task Quantifies Motor Deficits in Premanifest and Manifest Huntington’s Disease

BACKGROUND We investigated the use of a simple novel nut and bolt task in premanifest and manifest Huntington's disease (HD) patients to detect and quantify motor impairments at all stages of the disease. METHODS Premanifest HD (n=24), manifest HD (n=27) and control (n=32) participants were asked to screw a nut onto a bolt in one direction, using three different sized bolts with their left and right hand in turn. RESULTS We identified some impairments at all stages of HD and in the premanifest individuals, deficits in the non-dominant hand correlated with disease burden scores. CONCLUSION This simple, cheap motor task was able to detect motor impairments in both premanifest and manifest HD and as such might be a useful quantifiable measure of motor function for use in clinical studies.