Objective: To evaluate dopamine transporter scan findings in patients with chorea.

Background: Chorea is nonrepetitive irregular involuntary movement with distal predominance. They are caused by numerous disease including Huntington’s disease (HD) and postcardiac arrest syndrome. Pathological study showed that dopamine receptor density was reduced in the striatum of patient with chorea. Dopamine transporter (DAT)-scan has high sensitivity and specificity to differentiate patients with parkinsonian syndromes (Parkinson’s disease, multiple system atrophy, and progressive supranuclear palsy) from essential tremor and healthy control. However, there is few repot which shows about DAT-scan finding in patients with chorea.

Methods: DAT-scan was performed in patients with four HD and one postcardiac arrest case used by 123 I-ioflupane. All HD patients were diagnosed as HD by gene analysis of huntingtin. Specific binding ration (SBR) was calculated by the ratio of specific-striatal to non-specific binding. We examined the relation between SBR and patient clinical data (age, disease duration).

Results: DAT-scan was examined in five patients with chorea: age 39 years to 79 years, three female, disease duration one year to 9 year. SBR was reduced in all patient with chorea. Especially, accumulation in head of caudate nucleus was reduced compared with putamen. There is any statistical correlation between SBR and clinical data.

Conclusions: We showed that DAT-scan findings in patient with chorea were abnormal. These findings may be different from patients with parkinsonian disease. DAT-scan may be a useful for diagnosing and monitoring chorea.

References: Hwang WJ, Yao WJ.  SPECT study of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system in Huntington’s disease. J Neuroimaging. 2013 Apr;23(2):192-6.

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