Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 April 2020
Ultra-pure ethyl-EPA, a semi-synthetic, ethyl ester of eicosapentaenoic acid, is associated with clinical improvement in motor functioning in Huntington's disease. The aim was to determine the extent to which it might reduce the rate of progress of cerebral atrophy.
High-resolution MRIs were acquired at baseline, six months and one year in 30 patients with stage I or II Huntington's disease who took part in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 2 g daily ethyl-EPA. For each subject and each pair of T1 images, the two-timepoint percentage brain volume change was estimated in a double-blind fashion using SIENA (Structural Image Evaluation, using Normalisation, of Atrophy), Version 2.5, part of FSL (version 4.0, http://www.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl).
Figure 1 shows areas of significant group-level reduction in brain atrophy between patients receiving ethyl-EPA and those receiving placebo (red-yellow: the colour bar shows the p-value under the null hypothesis of no change). Significant changes are observed at the head of the caudate and the posterior section of the thalamus.
Treatment with ethyl-EPA is associated with significant reduction in brain atrophy in Huntington's disease, particularly in the caudate and thalamus. No other drug tested in Huntington's disease has shown this effect (fx).
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