Chorea and high altitude erythrocytosis: a case report

Abstract

Chorea is a movement disorder which is rarely caused by erythrocytosis. Erithrocytosis or polycythemia is the augmentation of the absolute erythrocytic mass and its most common primary cause is polycythemia vera. Some of the secondary causes are erythrocytosis by central hipoxia occurring in people who live in the highlands. Chore is a rare neurological manifestation of erythrocytosis occurring in 0.5 to 2% of these patients. There was a report of a 71 year-old male patient with generalized chorea of sudden onset predominant in mouth, tongue and face and lower limbs, secondary to acquired erythrocytosis, which improved after the number of erythrocytes decreased through successive sessions of phlebotomy.