Average age at disease onset is about 64, with the youngest confirmed onset being at age 43. There may be a slight female predominance. History
Corticobasal syndrome was first recognized in 1967 when Rebeiz, Kolodny, and Richardson Jr described three people with a progressive asymmetric akinetic-rigid syndrome combined with apraxia, which they named corticodentatonigral degeneration with neuronal achromasia. The condition was "mostly forgotten" until 1989, when Marsden et al. used the name corticobasal degeneration. In 1989 Gibb and colleagues provided detailed clinical and pathological descriptions in a further three cases adopting the name corticobasal degeneration, after which various other names included "corticonigral degeneration with nuclear achromasia" and "cortical basal ganglionic degeneration". Although the underlying cause of CBD is unknown, the disease occurs as a result of damage to the basal ganglia, specifically marked by neuronal degeneration or depigmentation (loss of melanin in a neuron) in the substantia nigra. Additional distinguishing neurological features of those diagnosed with CBD consist of asymmetric atrophy of the frontal and parietal cortical regions of the brain. Postmortem studies of patients diagnosed with CBD indicate that histological attributes often involve ballooning of neurons, gliosis, and tauopathy. Much of the pioneering advancements and research performed on CBD has been completed within the past decade or so, due to the relatively recent formal recognition of the disease.The Office of Rare Diseases in the United States created the first criteria in 2002, and the Armstrong clinical diagnostic criteria were created in 2013.
It has been suggested that the nomenclature of corticobasal degeneration only be used for naming the disease after it has received verification through postmortem analysis of the neuropathology. CBS patients with greater temporoparietal degeneration are more likely to have AD pathology as opposed to frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Treatment
Because the exact cause of CBD is unknown, there exists no formal treatment for the disease. Instead, treatments focus on minimizing the appearance or effect of the symptoms resulting from CBD. The most easily treatable symptom of CBD is parkinsonism, and the most common form of treatment for this symptom is the application of dopaminergic drugs. However, in general only moderate improvement is seen and the relief from the symptom is not long-lasting. In addition, palliative therapies, including the implementation of wheelchairs, speech therapy, and feeding techniques, are often used to alleviate many of the symptoms that show no improvement with drug administration.There is no consensus on what causes CBD and so most of the treatment goes in helping symptoms. Many treatments have low success rates or have not been tested thoroughly or produced frequently. For example, in relation to the motor aspect of disability, CBD has a high resistance against treatments to help the dopamine intake like levodopa. A number of studies have reported no real levels of improvement based with the use of similar drugs/dopaminergic agonists. Because of the brains levels of inhibition, some medications have focused on creating an inhibition that would negate the effect.