Is there a difference between cerebellar ataxia and cerebellar atrophy?

Cerebellar ataxia is one of the symptoms of cerebellar atrophy. Cerebellar atrophy is a progressive disease, and some drugs that can improve the patient's ataxia can be used to partially improve the patient's clinical symptoms. Quit alcohol and smoking, develop good eating habits, combine work and rest, and exercise moderately.

Cerebellar ataxia and cerebellar atrophy are both cerebellar-related diseases, but they are different diseases.

Cerebellar ataxia is a neurological disorder that affects the function of the cerebellum, making it difficult to maintain coordination and balance in the body. This disease is usually caused by cerebellar damage or diseases like cerebral hemorrhage, encephalitis, multiple sclerosis, etc.

Cerebellar atrophy is a neurological disease that causes the brain tissue to shrink and shrink gradually, thus affecting the function of the cerebellum. This disease is usually caused by a variety of factors like genetics, poisoning, hypoxia, etc.

Thus, while cerebellar ataxia and cerebellar atrophy are both associated with the cerebellum, their symptoms are not the same. If you have any questions or need more information, talk to your doctor.

Cerebellar atrophy is a neurological disorder that causes abnormalities in other parts of the body, such as dizziness, unsteady walking, unclear speech, and tremors in the limbs. Patients with cerebellar atrophy must pay attention to their diet in their daily life, as if they do not improve their diet, their condition may be aggravated. Patients with cerebellar atrophy should pay more attention to their diet and eat more light and easily digestible food.

The posture maintenance and voluntary movement of the human body with ataxia are closely related to the brain, basal ganglia cerebellum, vestibular system, and deep sensation. Damage to these systems may lead to poor coordination of movements, impaired balance, and other symptoms and signs called ataxia.

Cerebellar atrophy is mainly manifested as dizziness, slow voluntary activity, unsteadiness in standing, wide stride, staggering gait, inability to walk in a straight line, and poor speech. Patients with ataxia often present with unsteady walking, a staggered gait, inflexible movements, and wide legs when walking, and in adult patients, they cannot walk in a straight line. Patients with cerebral atrophy should not use drugs blindly, in daily life, various vegetables and fruits are eaten in rotation to absorb different nutrients.

Ataxia and cerebellar atrophy are two diseases with different symptoms, but ataxia and cerebellar atrophy may also be mutually factors, which will cause mutual aggravation and progression. Cerebellar atrophy predisposes to ataxia, and patients with ataxia may also have cerebellar atrophy in progression.

Ataxia is generally a balance dysfunction with some conditions such as unsteady walking, choking on drinking water, etc., and it is easy to fall. Cerebellar atrophy is generally a disorder of cerebellar balance caused by lesions or infarctions, which can lead to choking on water, difficulty swallowing, unsteady walking, and inability to walk normally.

Cerebellar atrophy is not a disease but a neuroimaging finding. It is generally related to genetic, degenerative diseases, and can also have other causes, most of which are clinically common with the elderly, and only imaging can be seen that the patient's cerebellar volume becomes smaller, and the sulcus gyrus widens. Because the cerebellum is involved in the balance and muscle tone activities of the human body, patients will have clinical symptoms such as gait instability, language impairment, and ataxia.

Let's briefly talk about ataxia, ataxia is that in the case of muscle strength is not reduced, the coordination of limb movements is not stable and coordinated, the limbs cannot move at will, the range of movement is disordered, and normal posture and balance cannot be maintained. Common** with cerebellar hemorrhage, infarction, brain tumors, peripheral neuritis, sensory neuropathy, genetics, Parkinson's, etc.

The difference between cerebellar atrophy and ataxia: although they are all related to cerebellar lesions, they have different medical history and laboratory tests, and the disease itself is essentially different.

I think cerebellar ataxia is one of the clinical manifestations of cerebellar atrophy, and we know that cerebellar atrophy is more common in older people, and its common feature is a decrease in the volume of the cerebellum and a widening of the sulci on neuroimaging. Therefore, patients with cerebellar atrophy often have symptoms such as gait instability, ataxia, and slurred speech, and we know that the manifestations of cerebellar ataxia are unsteady standing, swaying from side to side, also known as drunken gait, which is almost consistent with the clinical manifestations of cerebellar atrophy, so I think cerebellar atrophy includes cerebellar ataxia.

How to prevent cerebellar atrophy in daily life.

First, the offspring of patients with a family history of cerebellar atrophy should go to the hospital for screening and exclusion.

The second point is to strengthen mental exercises, such as playing cards, square dancing, etc.

Third, develop a good lifestyle.

Ataxia and cerebellar atrophy are two different disorders with different symptoms.

1. Ataxia: motor coordination disorder under normal muscle strength, which is manifested as disordered amplitude and coordination of voluntary movement of limbs, and inability to maintain body posture and balance. Ataxia may affect the limbs, trunk, and throat muscles, causing postural, gait, and speech disorders, leading to complications such as cervical myelopathy and spastic cerebral palsy.

Ataxia is not contagious. It is caused by a lot of ** in various parts of the nervous system.

It is divided into: 1. Cerebellar ataxia: cerebellar and its afferent afferent fibrous lesions can cause ataxia, which is characterized by unstable standing due to balance disorders of the trunk, as well as ataxia of the limbs and poor distalization, alternating movement disorders, incoordination, delayed motor initiation and termination, or continuity disorders.

2、.Vestibular ataxia: caused by damage to the vestibular system, mainly due to balance disorders.

It is characterized by impaired balance at rest and in motion. It has similarities with cerebellar ataxia, such as the width of the base of both feet when standing, physical instability, tilting to the side or backwards, and deviation when walking. However, there are usually significant vertigo, nystagmus, and abnormal vestibular function tests that can be differentiated.

3. Hereditary ataxia: it is a chronic disease of the central nervous system, **unknown, most of them have a family history, autosomal recessive or dominant inheritance, and occasionally companion inheritance. Pathological changes are mainly spinal, cerebellar, and brainstem degeneration, and peripheral nerves, optic nerves, brain, and cerebellum can also be affected.

The main clinical manifestations are ataxia and poor distance discrimination.

2. Cerebellar atrophy: also known as spinocerebellar atrophy, mainly damages the spinal cord and cerebellum, and is a familial dominant inherited nervous system disease. People with this type of disease walk wakily, like penguins, and are also called the "penguin family".

Main symptoms: unsteady walking, poor movement, weakness in gripping, slurred speech, dizziness, headache, accompanied by blurred vision and other vision problems, and there may be symptoms such as difficulty swallowing, trembling writing, and urinary disorders.

In addition, cerebellar atrophy may cause ataxia, the patient's balance is weakened, especially when completing fine motor skills, it will be difficult, and coordination ability is also significantly reduced, in addition, some other diseases may also cause ataxia, such as severe intracranial infection, neurological damage, head injury, brainstem injury, etc.

No matter what kind of symptom it is, you must go to the hospital for diagnosis in time and actively cooperate**.

Hello, cerebellar ataxia is the most common symptom (hereditary ataxia) and almost 100% of patients with IAS have ataxia manifestations. Cerebellar ataxia can be observed by the daily activities of patients with IAS, such as dressing, buttoning, holding water, writing, eating, speech, gait, etc. unsteady walking, staggering gait, inflexible movements, legs wide apart when walking; Adults with the disease cannot walk in a straight line.

Moving forward in a curve from left to right, manifested as a scissor step, deflecting in a "Z" shape, and trying to use both upper limbs to help maintain the stability of the body. Changes in muscle tone can change from decreased lesion to spasticity, and the ataxic gait can change to spastic ataxia. Unsteady standing, leaning forward or swaying from side to side, more prominent when standing on tiptoe or heel, easy to fall is often the early complaint of patients.

Patients often say, "Walking on small or uneven roads is more noticeable when walking unsteadily, and it is more likely to fall". As the disease progresses, patients may present with unsteady or impotent sit-up until they remain bedridden.

Cerebellar ataxia in this segment is caused by lesions of the cerebellum and its associated neurostructures: truncal ataxiaTrunk ataxia (postural cerebellar ataxia), which is mainly manifested by the patient's gait and posture (standing and sitting) balance disorders, such as unsteady standing, sedia-up, unsteady walking, positive (unstable) Romberg sign (eyes open, closed), upper extremity ataxia is unknown and obvious, and nystagmus is often absent. The diagnosis is based on damage to the cerebellar vermis (primitive cerebellum).

It can be seen in ADCA type, ataxia, telangiectasia, etc. Limb coordination ataxiaLimb coordination ataxia (motor cerebellar ataxia) is mainly manifested as the patient's limb balance disorder to complete various movements, such as finger-nose test, heel knee and shin test is inaccurate, poor distance discrimination, poor alternating movements, misfinger test biased to the affected side, nystagmus is more common (coarse), gait instability, etc. Ataxia is generally more severe in the upper limbs than in the lower limbs.

The localization diagnosis is based on damage to the cerebellar hemispheres (neocerebellum).

Taken literally, cerebellar atrophy refers to cerebellar atrophy and is a general description of a disease; Ataxia is more of a clinical manifestation: balance disorders, limb inability to coordinate movements, gait instability, dysarthria, eye movement disorders, etc., and the two should not be confused.

What needs to be known is that the disease that can cause ataxia in the human body is not just cerebellar atrophy, so we should call this disease cerebellar atrophy rather than ataxia, although hereditary cerebellar atrophy is medically called hereditary ataxia, which is a professional term, and it doesn't hurt to call it anyway.

The most direct meaning of "cerebellar atrophy" is that neuroimaging shows a decrease in cerebellar volume and a widening of the sulcus, which is a description of the location and manifestations of a pathological lesion, rather than the name of a certain type or group of diseases. Cerebellar atrophy is common in some hereditary and neurodegenerative diseases, such as: spinocerebellar ataxia, multiple system atrophy, etc.; It can also be secondary to other factors, such as:

Acute cerebellia, certain drug poisoning, cerebrovascular disease, trauma, etc.

The common people are very impressed by the term "brain atrophy", firstly, because the literal meaning is easy to understand, and secondly, it often reminds people of very serious diseases. A large number of institutional webpages claiming to be "cerebellar atrophy" can be retrieved on the Internet, often confusing "cerebral atrophy", "cerebral atrophy", and "cerebellar atrophy".

Medically speaking, "ataxia" is a group of symptoms, mainly manifested as: balance disorder, progressive limb coordination movement disorder, gait instability, dysarthria, eye movement disorder, etc., and can be accompanied by other complex nervous system damage, such as pyramidal system, extrapyramidal system, autonomic nervous system, peripheral nerve damage, etc.

Cerebellar atrophy and ataxia are not exactly equivalent concepts. The former is an imaging finding, while the latter is a clinical symptom. The degree of cerebellar atrophy does not always correlate with the severity of clinical manifestations. Don't panic because of the discovery of cerebellar atrophy during a physical examination.

If cerebellar atrophy is suspected, or the above symptoms of ataxia appear, or there is a history of such disease in the family, it is best to go to a regular hospital for a detailed examination, and if necessary, genetic testing.