Abstract
Chorea could be defined as a state of excessive, spontaneous movements, irregularly timed, randomly distributed and abrupt. Choreiform dyskinesias of certain muscle groups with constant movement pattern are called stereotypies.
Dyskinesias are accented by stress, physical and mental effort or voluntary movements and attenuated by mental relaxation and usually disappear in sleep. Choreiform dyskinesias originate in striatal dysfunction and depend on imbalance of direct and indirect motor loops.
Clinical signs typical for chorea are: tongue protrusion sign (patient can not hold still the protruded tongue, moves the tongue around and back to the mouth), milkmaid grip or grasp sign (during manual grip the patient involuntary relaxes and gripes the hand as if he would "munch" physicians hand) and dance-like gait with rocking hip movements denominated the disorder. Classification of choreatic syndromes is very complex and extensive.
From the clinical point of view it is convenient to classify causes according to incidence and age of disease onset (Table 1, 2)