Sydenham’s Chorea (Chorea Minor)

Shapera, Pittsburgh Medical Bulletin (1940),³³⁸ discussed the narrowness with which new drugs are frequently viewed and suggested that PHT might have broader uses than that of an anticonvulsant. The efficacy of PHT in conditions of involuntary movements, such as tremors, rigidity and spasticity, was studied. The author found PHT effective in treating involuntary movements in ten of fifteen patients with Sydenham’s chorea.

338. Shapera, W., Dilantin therapy in certain nervous disorders, Pittsburgh Med. Bull., 29: 732-736, 1940.

Ginabreda, Revista Espanola De Pediatria (1945),⁴²¹ reported on the effectiveness of PHT in six cases of chorea minor in children between the ages of five and twelve years. Improvement occurred in all of the cases in an average of fifteen to sixteen days. (See also Ref. 114.)

421. Ginabreda, J. M. S., Treatment of chorea with diphenylhydantoin sodium, Rev. Espan. Pediat., 266-272, Mar.-Apr., 1945. 114. Galindo, A. M. and Ginabreda, J. M. S., Treatment of chorea minor with diphenylhydantoin sodium, Ann. Med. (Barcelona), 34: 165-168, 1947.

De la Vega, Revista Clinica Espanola (1947),⁷⁵ reported on an epidemic of chorea minor or Sydenham’s chorea. PHT was used in thirty-four cases with excellent results. In twenty-six cases there was complete elimination of symptoms in three weeks of treatment. There were four relapses when PHT was discontinued. These were corrected with the renewal of treatment. Not only did PHT shorten the duration of the disease, but there was a marked reduction of complications—even those of cardiac lesions, a frequent and serious sequel to chorea minor.

75. de la Vega, P., Clinical results of the treatment of Sydenham’s chorea with sodium diphenylhydantoin, Rev. Clin. Esp. 24: 113-115, 1947.

Schwartzman, McDonald, Perillo, Archives of Pediatrics (1948), ⁵⁹¹ in a study of Sydenham’s chorea in which many medications were tried, reported that of eight patients given PHT, six were improved and two were cured.

591. Schwartzman, J., McDonald, D. H., and Perillo, L., Sydenham’s chorea, Arch. Pediat., 65: 6-24, 1948.

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