Glucose Hypermetabolism in Contralateral Basal Ganglia Demonstrated by Serial FDG PET/CT Scans in a Patient With SLE Chorea.

We reported a 24-year-old woman who developed a movement disorder of mouth and limbs during systemic lupus erythematosus. Brain MRI did not find any abnormalities. Increased FDG uptake in basal ganglia was found using FDG PET/CT brain scan. The symptoms remitted after therapy and the activities of the original hypermetabolic regions were down to normal in the follow-up FDG PET/CT scan. This case implies that the pathophysiology of chorea in systemic lupus erythematosus is different from that of chorea in other diseases, such as Huntington disease and chorea-acanthocytosis, in which hypometabolic basal ganglia was found.