title: [Hemiballism: report of eight cases].
abstract: We report eight cases of hemiballism. Six patients had diabetes mellitus, one patient presented with porencephaly after cranial trauma and one patient had a HIV-associated fungic granuloma (cryptococcus). In the diabetic group three patients had non-ketotic hyperglycemia; two of them with striatal hemorrhage, and the remaining three presented with an ischemic stroke. Hemichorea occurred in 75% of our patients, predominantly in the right side of the body. Six patients had good improvement with treatment with haloperidol and two patients had to undergo a thalamotomy, one of them with good results. In our series of eight patients with hemiballismus we observed an association with diabetes mellitus and stroke, and good clinical improvement.
authors.affiliation: Setor de Distúrbios do Movimento, Serviço de Neurologia, Hospital de Clínicas, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, PR, 80060-900, Brasil.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Coral
authors.forename: H A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Teive
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Werneck
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D018726:Anti-Dyskinesia Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D048909:Diabetes Complications; D020820:Dyskinesias / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006220:Haloperidol / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
chemical_list: D018726:Anti-Dyskinesia Agents; D006220:Haloperidol