Attempt at preclinical identification of Huntington's disease using the WAIS.

WAIS profiles of patients with Huntington's Disease (HD) differ from those of normal controls (NC). Studies of persons at risk for the disease (AR) have reported profiles with qualitative similarities to those of patients. Discriminant function and hierarchical clustering methods were used to explore the utility of WAIS pattern information for the preclinical identification of HD. A three-variable discriminant function correctly identified 79% of HDs and NCs. It classified 45% of ARs with HDs. However, there were no differences between ARs classified with HDs and those classified with NCs. Cluster analysis failed to isolate patient, risk, and control groups. Although performance patterns change very early in HD, WAIS profiles appear to be of limited value for preclinical identification of the disease.