Corticobasal Syndrome is a catch-all term. It’s one of those vague terms which we can lump medical conditions with in. The fact of the matter is that corticobasal degeneration was the classic disease that was first described from post-mortems tissue.
We could see abnormalities on the brain itself, but the clinical phenotype of those patients was a little bit like Parkinson’s, but they typically presented with what was regarded a bit like an alien hand. The hand wouldn’t do what they wanted to do, it was clumsy, it wouldn’t maybe use a knife and fork properly and there were other features – now as we’ve come to see more of Corticobasal Syndrome.
What we realise is that there are lots of diseases that can present like this disease – like Parkinson’s Disease, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, Alzheimer’s Disease – can all have a Corticobasal Syndrome. And unfortunately at the moment we don’t have a way of teasing those things apart, again unfortunately we don’t have fantastic treatments for Corticobasal Syndrome. So we have to rely on supporting those patients as best we can, dealing with the symptoms as they arise.