Hypnogenic paroxysmal dystonia: a new type of parasomnia?

Four cases of hypnogenic paroxysmal dystonia are described. The patients (three males and one female), aged between 12 and 39 were subjected to neurological, physical and psychological examination, and routine lab tests and brain CT scan were carried out within normal limits. One of the patients suffered from diurnal epileptic seizures.

Computerized tomography in amyotrophic choreo-acanthocytosis.

CT has been performed in five patients affected by amyotrophic choreo-acanthocytosis (ACA) and bicaudate diameter, bicaudate index and frontal horn/bicaudate ratio (FH/CC) have been evaluated. Findings have been confirmatory of caudate nuclei atrophy as shown by previous ACA autopsy reports, but did not differ from Huntington's chorea CT picture. There was no correlation between CT measurements and age, illness duration or degree of hyperkinesia in contradistinction to that reported for Huntington's chorea.

Amyotrophic choreoacanthocytosis: is it really a very rare disease?

Amyotrophic choreoacanthocytosis (ACA) is a hereditary disease characterized by adult onset, hyperkinesias (with tongue and/or lip biting), neurogenic muscular atrophies, acanthocytosis and normal blood lipoprotein pattern. In this paper we cite 8 patients belonging to three families, describing 6 patients of two of the families. We query the supposed rarity of the disease.