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Acute cerebellar ataxia - Symptom

Alternative Names

Cerebellar ataxia; Ataxia - acute cerebellar; Cerebellitis

Symptoms:

Ataxia may affect movement of the middle part of the body from the neck to the hip area (the trunk) or the arms and legs (limbs).

When the person is sitting, the body may move side-to-side, back-to-front, or both. Then the body quickly moves back to an upright position.

When a person with ataxia of the arms reaches for an object, the hand may sway back and forth.

Common symptoms of ataxia include:

Clumsy speech pattern (dysarthria)
Repetitive eye movements (nystagmus)
Uncoordinated eye movements
Walking problems (unsteady gait)

Signs and tests:

The doctor will ask you if you have recently been sick, and will try to rule out any other causes of the problem. A full brain and nervous system examination will be done to identify the areas of the nervous system that are most affected.

The following tests may be done:

Reviewed last on: 2/5/2011
David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine. Also reviewed by Joseph V. Campellone, MD, Division of Neurology, Cooper University Hospital, Camden, NJ. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

References

Johnston M. Movement disorders. In: Kliegman R, Behrman R, Jenson H, Stanton B, eds. Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. 18th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2007:chap 597.

Lublin FD, Miller AE. Multiple sclerosis and other inflammatory demyelinating diseases of the central nervous system. In: Bradley WG, Daroff RB, Fenichel GM, Jankovic J, eds. Neurology in Clinical Practice. 5th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Butterworth-Heinemann Elsevier; 2008:chap 58.

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