What Is Hemidystonia?
Joaquin A Vizcarra1, Hyder A Jinnah1,2,3
1Department of Neurology Emory University School of Medicine Atlanta Georgia USA.
Background:
Hemidystonia is defined as dystonia restricted to one side of the body. It is traditionally believed to result from a lesion in the contralateral hemisphere.
Objectives:
To describe a series of hemidystonia patients without lesions on brain imaging.
Methods:
We searched for individuals with potential hemidystonia who were included in the Dystonia Coalition or Movement Disorder Society Genetic mutation database (MDSgene), and conducted a systematic review.
Results:
We found 10 individuals classified as hemidystonia or with homolateral limb dystonia among 3696 cases enrolled by the Dystonia Coalition, 9 cases in MDSgene, and one idiopathic case in the literature. None had evidence of a brain lesion. Body distributions used to define hemidystonia varied considerably and were not always restricted to one side of the body.
Conclusions:
Hemidystonia may be idiopathic or genetic, without any obvious brain lesion. The varied use of the term suggests the need for more specific clinical criteria to define "half the body."
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