[A case of hemichorea due to insular and parietal cortical infarctions]

A 70-year-old man visited our hospital with a chief complaint of involuntary movements, diagnosed as chorea, involving the right upper and lower limbs. Brain MRI showed acute cerebral infarctions involving the left insular and parietal cortices. Chorea is usually due to dysfunction of components of the basal ganglia pathways, such as the caudate nucleus or subthalamic nucleus, and is rarely caused by lesions of the insular or parietal cortex. Here, we describe a case of cerebral infarctions in the left insular and parietal cortices and chorea of the right limbs, and discuss the relationship between the mechanism of chorea and insular and parietal cortical lesions.