Cerebral blood flow in Sydenham's chorea.

1. They reported that the cerebral perfusional abnormalities were detected in 6 of 8 patients with generalized chorea. Barsottini, et al.(2) reported 10 cases, 4 of which had normal perfusion of the basal ganglia. Of these 4 patients, 3 had bilateral chorea, 1 had hemichorea. In our study(3), SPECT study detected hyperperfusion in the basal ganglia in 16 of 17 SC patients. The patient with normal SPECT study had bilateral chorea. Five patients with hemichorea showed hyperperfusion. Therefore, any relationship between the clinical chorea and perfusional abnormality in SPECT study is not seen. Thus, the studies including a large series of SC patients are needed.