Chorea

Dance disease is also called rheumatic dance disease. It usually occurs after streptococcal infection and is a neurological symptom in acute rheumatic fever. The lesions mainly affect the cerebral cortex, basal ganglia, and cerebellum, and are caused by dysfunction of the extrapyramidal system. The clinical features are mainly involuntary dance-like movements. More common in children and adolescents, especially in women 5 to 15 years old. After adolescence, the incidence rapidly declines, with occasional adult women, mainly pregnant women. Infection such as encephalitis, diphtheria, chicken pox, measles, pertussis, and systemic lupus erythematosus and carbon monoxide poisoning can occasionally cause the disease.