Recent studies have shown unique clinicoradiologic characteristics in patients with hemiballism-hemichorea (HB-HC) caused by non-ketotic hyperglycemia; however, there is still a limited number of patients being reported. We report 7 patients (3 males and 4 females) with this type of dyskinesia, whose ages ranged from 60 to 84 years. Brain CT of these patients showed hyperdensity in the contralateral striatum, corresponding with MRI studies that showed an increased signal intensity on T1-weighted images and a decreased signal on T2-weighted images. After metabolic control had been achieved, the hyperkinetic state of these patients abruptly ceased. Follow-up neuroimaging studies in 2 patients documentied complete resolution of the striatal hyperintensity on brain CT and MRI after 3 months and 6 months, respectively. A review of patients with HB-HC caused by non-ketotic hyperglycemia reported formerly and in the present study shows that the dyskinesia tends to occur in aged diabetic patients. The age of patients with dyskinesia secondary to cerebral infarction is generelly much lower. We also found that 86% (30 out of 35 cases) patients reported with HB-HC caused by non-ketotic hyperglycemia were Asians. The prognosis of the dyskinesia was excellent, and the radiological abnormalities are completely reversible.

Of the sequences and measurement techniques studied, the FS-SPGR sequence combined with the use of digitized image analysis provides the most accurate method for the assessment of ankle hyaline cartilage.

Physeal cartilage extension into the metaphysis represents a healing sign in chronically stressed adolescent wrists. MR imaging findings including horizontal fracture and physeal cartilage extension to the metaphysis suggest that physeal widening occurred secondary to metaphyseal injury.

This 29-year-old man with cerebral palsy complicated by generalized dystonia was treated by simultaneous bilateral posteroventral pallidotomy. Postoperatively, there was slow, but steady, improvement in the patient's dystonia and disability. However, the improvement in abnormal movements was only prominent for cervical dystonia and oromandibular dyskinesia. The patient's Burke-Fahn-Marsden dystonia scores were 51 preoperatively and 37, 33.5 and 33.5, at 3, 6, and 12 months postoperatively, respectively, demonstrating a maximum improvement of 34%. These results suggest that pallidotomy can be an alternative therapy for those patients suffering from intractable generalized dystonia.

Lumbar zygapophyseal joint injections, as a useful diagnostic tool for facet joint syndrome, could also have useful palliative effects in the management of chronic lower back pain.