• Renata Costa de Miranda, Nicola Di Lorenzo, Angela Andreoli, Lorenzo Romano, Gemma Lou De Santis, Paola Gualtieri, and Antonino De Lorenzo.
• PhD School of Applied Medical-Surgical Sciences, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy; CAPES Foundation, Ministry of Education of Brazil, Brasília, Brazil.
• Nutrition. 2019 Mar 1; 59: 145-149.

ObjectiveUnderstanding the body composition (BC) of patients with Huntington's disease (HD) could help to delay disease progression and improve treatment efficacy. The aim of this study was to assess BC parameters, including bone mineral density (BMD), and to find new biomarkers that can be early indicators for weight loss in patients with HD.MethodsTwenty-one age- and sex-matched patients with HD and 29 healthy controls (CT) were enrolled. For each patient, body weight (BW), height, and body mass index (BMI) were evaluated. BC and BMD were measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. Subsamples were created according to sex and percent fat mass (FM) (obese and nonobese). All analyses were carried out using SPSS version 23.ResultsIn all comparisons, BMD and T-score were lower in the HD group, but were not correlated with lean body mass (LBM) or FM. In the HD group, LBM and truncal fat were mostly reduced, except in women with HD whose BC appeared to be less affected by the disease than men. Furthermore, LBM (r = 0.80) and truncal fat (r = 0.68) were better correlated with BW than BMI (r = 0.56).ConclusionComplete BC assessment can be crucial for preventive interventions and prognosis definition in patients with HD. New biomarkers such as BMD, LBM, and truncal fat can be early indicators of weight loss in patients with HD.Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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