Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2023 Jan 27;15(1):e34269.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.34269. eCollection 2023 Jan.

Atypical Imaging Findings of Nonketotic Hyperglycemic Hemichorea: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Christopher M Stevens  1 , Kevin Malone  2 , Arielle Degueure  3 , Amro Saad Aldine  1 , Octavio Arevalo  4
Affiliations
Case Reports

Atypical Imaging Findings of Nonketotic Hyperglycemic Hemichorea: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Christopher M Stevens et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Nonketotic hyperglycemic hemichorea (NH-HC) is a rare condition presenting in the clinical setting. Brain imaging plays an important role in diagnosing NH-HC, which typically shows basal ganglia changes contralateral to the side of the hemiballismus/hemichorea. Only a few articles in the literature have reported normal pertinent magnetic resonance/CT findings in patients presenting with NH-HC. To the authors' knowledge, no cases in the literature have reported basal ganglia changes solely observed on CT but not on MRI in patients presenting with NH-HC. Herein, we describe a unique case in which a CT of a patient presenting with NH-HC demonstrated basal ganglia abnormalities with negative MRI findings.

Keywords: basal; basal ganglia; computed tomography; ganglia; hemichorea; hyperglycemic; imaging; magnetic resonance imaging; nonketotic; nonketotic hyperglycemic hemichorea.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Noncontrast CT of the head showing bilateral basal ganglia calcification with hyperattenuation of the left putamen (red arrows)
Figure 2
Figure 2. No vascular abnormality is seen on the brain MRI
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Hyperglycemic nonketotic states and other metabolic imbalances. Ondo WG. Handb Clin Neurol. 2011;100:287–291. - PubMed
    1. Irreversible hemichorea-hemiballism in a case of nonketotic hyperglycemia presenting as the initial manifestation of diabetes mellitus. Roy U, Das SK, Mukherjee A, Biswas D, Pan K, Biswas A, Panwar A. Tremor Other Hyperkinet Mov (N Y) 2016;6:393. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hemichorea associated with non-ketotic hyperglycemia: a case report and literature review. Zheng W, Chen L, Chen JH, et al. Front Neurol. 2020;11:96. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Some observations on hemiballismus. Bedwell SF. Neurology. 1960;10:619–622. - PubMed
    1. Involuntary choreiform movements in a diabetic patient. Xiao F, Liu M, Wang XF. Lancet. 2019;393:1033. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources