title: Novel Nut and Bolt Task Quantifies Motor Deficits in Premanifest and Manifest Huntington's Disease.
abstract: 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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  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.
authors.forename: Lucy M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.forename: Faye
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Begeti
authors.affiliation: John van Geest Centre for Brain Repair, Cambridge, United Kingdom; Faculty of Medical Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Panin
authors.affiliation: John van Geest Centre for Brain Repair, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Alpar S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Lazar
authors.affiliation: School of Medical Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Travis
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cruickshank
authors.affiliation: School of Medical Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Mel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ziman
authors.affiliation: John van Geest Centre for Brain Repair, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Sarah L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Mason
authors.affiliation: John van Geest Centre for Brain Repair, Cambridge, United Kingdom; School of Medical Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Roger A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Barker