Altered driving performance of symptomatic Huntington’s disease gene carriers in simulated road conditions

AbstractObjective: In clinical practice, patients with Huntington’s disease(HD) often decide to solely drive in their own familiar neighborhoods and not on a motorway or in an unknown area. The aim of the study was to identify differences in driving performance between HD gene carriers and healthy individuals in simulated urban and motorway environments.Methods: This cross-sectional study included 87 participants (28 premanifest HD, 30 manifest HD, 29 controls). All participants were active drivers and were assessed using a driving simulator, a driving history questionnaire, and the Unified Huntington’s DiseaseRating Scale. The driving simulatorsession included urban and motorway scenarios. Analysisof variance and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to compare urban and motorway driving across all 3 groups.Results: Manifest HD drove slower compared to controls and premanifest HD when speed limitsincreased (80 and 100 km/h) and they had a less steady speed compared to premanifest HD on the motorway and in ...