Differential Diagnosis of Chorea

ISBN-13: 9780195393514 / Angielski / Twarda / 2010 / 480 str.

Ruth Walker

Opis

The involuntary movement disorder known as chorea can be due to a wide variety of neurological conditions, both genetic and acquired. This volume provides a comprehensive account of these conditions. While Huntington's disease is the prototypic inherited chorea, with the development of the genetic test for this disorder it has become apparent that a small but significant proportion of patients with this phenotype do not have this diagnosis. Although less common than Huntington's disease, it is vital to correctly diagnose these patients with advances in molecular medicine, it is now easier to identify new genetic causes of chorea and expand the phenotype of disorders not typically thought to cause this movement disorder. Non-genetic etiologies are also discussed, including medications, structural lesions, psychogenic causes, and metabolic abnormalities.

This book describes in detail the latest clinical and etiological information regarding the causes of chorea. Psychopathology, management, and pathophysiology of chorea, are also addressed.
Many chapters are contributed by authors working at the forefront of research in the specific disorders, and provide the latest basic and clinical research, some from their own laboratories.

O autorze

Ruth H. Walker obtained her medical degree from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and went on to complete a PhD in basal ganglia neuroanatomy at the University of Edinburgh and MIT. Following a neurology residency at New York University School of Medicine, she returned to the basal ganglia for a fellowship in Movement Disorders at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She is Director of the Movement Disorders Clinic at the James J. Peters Veterans' Affairs Medical Center, and is also a member of the Department of Neurology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Walker's research focuses on the functional neuroanatomy of the basal ganglia and clinicopathologic correlations of neurogenetic disorders. Her particular clinical interests are the hyperkinetic disorders, especially the rarer inherited causes of chorea.