title: Acute chorea and type 1 diabetes mellitus: clinical and neuroimaging findings.
abstract: The association of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and acute chorea is rare. We report an 8-yr-old boy with T1DM who developed acute hemichorea-hemiballism of the right arm in whom magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain revealed hyperintense signal in putamen and considerable atrophy and focal area of gliosis in the right putamen. There was a deposition of deoxyhemoglobin indicating recent bleeding in the left lentiform nucleus. A control MRI 2 months later showed complete reabsorption of the blood component in the left lentiform nucleus. Multislice computerized tomography revealed hyperdensities in the corpus striatum and subcortical calcifications. This report describes, for the first time, findings of calcifications in the corticomedullary junction in the brain hemispheres of a child with T1DM and chorea and reviews the possible causal mechanisms of this unusual association.
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Endocrinology Unit, Hospital Universitario Prof. Edgard Santos, Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. cresio.alves@uol.com.br
authors.forename: Cresio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Alves
authors.forename: Silvana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sampaio
authors.forename: Veronica
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Barbosa
authors.forename: Marcos
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Machado
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D002114:Calcinosis / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D002648:Child; D002819:Chorea / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D059906:Neuroimaging / Q000379:methods; D011859:Radiography