Systemic illnesses that cause movement disorders

Abstract

The CNS control systems of the motor behavior reside in a very complex and highly organized network of neuronal circuits implying extremely numerous synaptic connections and interrelations among cortical and subcortical structures, allowing a very complex and refined integration of the motor activity in the global and adaptive behavior of each human being. This is mediated by a very complex biochemical and metabolic activity related to the synaptic and cellular activity, which in the same time explain at least partially the particular vulnerability of these neuronal networks’ activity to a great number of structural, biological, and even physical aggressive agents, which often are related not to primary neurological diseases but to systemic illnesses implying a multiorgan pathology (e.g., infective, immune-inflammatory, paraneoplastic, metabolic, endocrine, vascular, hematologic, toxic diseases). As clinical consequences, these types of lesions are often related to the appearance of many types of motor abnormalities alone but most often in association with other clinical neurological, psychiatric, and general clinical and biological modifications more or less suggestive for a specific etiology.