Chorea, Sydenham's (DC 8105)

Rating levels

• 100% — Your Sydenham's chorea causes severe, uncontrollable jerky movements and other symptoms that are clearly getting worse over time and seriously interfere with your daily life. The condition has progressed to an advanced stage where the involuntary muscle movements (chorea) are very noticeable and significantly limit your ability to function normally.
• 80% — For Sydenham's chorea (a neurological condition causing involuntary jerky movements, usually after strep throat or rheumatic fever), a severe rating means you have significant uncontrolled movements that seriously interfere with your daily activities. These involuntary muscle movements (chorea) would be frequent and pronounced enough to make it very difficult to perform routine tasks like eating, writing, walking, or working.
• 50% — Chorea symptoms that significantly interfere with your daily activities and functioning but don't completely disable you. This would include frequent involuntary jerking movements (chorea) that make it difficult to perform tasks like writing, eating, or walking steadily, along with noticeable emotional instability or behavioral changes that affect your work and relationships.
• 30% — The VA considers your Sydenham's chorea (involuntary jerky movements, usually affecting the face, hands, and feet) to be at a moderate level of severity. This means your uncontrolled movements noticeably interfere with your daily activities like writing, eating, or walking, but you can still perform most basic functions with some difficulty. The movements are frequent enough to be disruptive but don't completely prevent you from caring for yourself or working.
• 10% — Your Sydenham's chorea causes only mild symptoms that don't significantly interfere with your daily activities or work. You may have occasional involuntary movements (jerky or twitchy motions you can't control) or minor coordination problems, but these symptoms are manageable and don't prevent you from functioning normally most of the time.
• -1% — Sydenham's chorea is the neurological manifestation of acute rheumatic fever. Per the CFR Note, the rater must consider the underlying rheumatic etiology and any other rheumatic-fever complications. Most importantly, the same rheumatic fever that caused the chorea commonly also damages the heart valves (mitral or aortic valve regurgitation/stenosis, rated under DC 7000 for rheumatic heart disease or DC 7001 for endocarditis residuals). Joint involvement (rheumatic arthritis) is rated under the appropriate musculoskeletal code. These complications are rated separately under their own diagnostic codes and combined under § 4.25; the chorea rating under DC 8105 covers only the involuntary-movement disability.