Chorea is an abnormal movement characterized by a continuous flow of random muscle contractions. This phenomenon has several causes, such as infectious and degenerative processes. Chorea results from basal ganglia dysfunction. As the control of the eye movements is related to the basal ganglia, it is expected, therefore, that is altered in diseases related to chorea. Sydenham's chorea, Huntingt...

OBJECTIVE To determine the molecular nature of the neurological disease in the seminal family reported by Critchley et al in the 1960s, characterized by a hyperkinetic movement disorder and the appearance of acanthocytosis on peripheral blood smear. The eponym Levine-Critchley syndrome, subsequently termed neuroacanthocytosis, has been applied to symptomatically similar, but genetically distinc...

Chorea is a hyperkinetic movement disorder characterised by excessive spontaneous movements that are irregularly timed, randomly distributed and abrupt. In this article, the authors discuss the causes of chorea, particularly Huntington's disease and the genetic syndromes that may resemble it, including HDL1-3, inherited prion disease, spinocerebellar ataxias 1, 3 and 17, neuroacanthocytosis, de...

There have been significant advances in neuroacanthocytosis (NA) syndromes in the past 20 years, however, confusion still exists regarding the precise nature of these disorders and the correct nomenclature. This article seeks to clarify these issues and to summarise the recent literature in the field. The four key NA syndromes are described here-chorea-acanthocytosis, McLeod syndrome, Huntingto...

The X-linked McLeod neuroacanthocytosis syndrome is a multisystem disorder with central nervous system manifestations resembling Huntington's disease. We examined 5 McLeod patients and 5 asymptomatic heterozygous females with fast multiple spin-echo spectroscopic imaging. Three patients with pronounced psychiatric or cognitive manifestations had pathological N-acetyl aspartate/(creatine + choli...