Cerebellar ataxia is a steadily progressive neurodegenerative disease associated with loss of motor control, leaving patients unable to walk, talk, or perform activities of daily living. Direct motor instruction in cerebella ataxia patients has limited effectiveness, presumably because an inappropriate closed-loop cerebellar response to the inevitable observed error confounds motor learning mec...

MRI of the brain was performed in 53 patients with a variety of degenerative ataxias and related disorders and 96 control subjects. Atrophy of intracranial structures was not seen in patients with the pure type of hereditary spastic paraplegia, or in early cases of Friedreich's ataxia. In advanced Friedreich's ataxia there was atrophy of the vermis and medulla. The MRI features of early onset c...

IMPORTANCE Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy results from lytic infection of the glia by the JC polyomavirus (JCV); JCV granule cell neuronopathy is caused by infection with a mutated form of JCV, leading to a shift in viral tropism from the glia to cerebellar granule cells. This shift results in a clinical syndrome dominated by progressive cerebellar dysfunction that might elude stand...

A 54-year-old woman with adenocarcinoma of the lung and lymph node metastasis experienced nystagmus and cerebellar ataxia 2 weeks after initiating nivolumab therapy. An evaluation for several autoimmune-related antibodies and paraneoplastic syndrome yielded negative results. We eventually diagnosed the patient with nivolumab-induced acute cerebellar ataxia, after excluding other potential condi...

Voltage-gated Ca(2+) channels (VGCCs) are membrane proteins that determine the activity and survival of neurons, and mutations in the P/Q-type VGCCs are known to cause cerebellar ataxia. VGCC dysfunction may also underlie acquired peripheral and central nervous system diseases associated with small-cell lung cancer, including Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome (LEMS) and paraneoplastic cerebella...

OBJECTIVE To report paroxysmal episodes of cerebellar ataxia in a patient with anti-contactin-associated protein-like 2 (CASPR2) antibody-related autoimmune encephalitis and to search for similar paroxysmal ataxia in a cohort of patients with anti-CASPR2 antibody-associated autoimmune encephalitis. METHODS We report a patient with paroxysmal episodes of cerebellar ataxia observed during autoi...

Ataxia is a neurological symptom characterized by abnormal movement, due to cerebellar malfunction. Although the cause of the malfunction varies, from mutations in calcium or potassium channels to progressive degeneration of cerebellar tissue, the neurological symptoms of cerebellar-related ataxia are similar. In this short review we present a model that portrays the olivo-cerebellar system as ...

Ataxia is a neurological symptom characterized by abnormal movement, due to cerebellar malfunction. Although the cause of the malfunction varies, from mutations in calcium or potassium channels to progressive degeneration of cerebellar tissue, the neurological symptoms of cerebellar-related ataxia are similar. In this short review we present a model that portrays the olivo-cerebellar system as ...

The nitroimidazole group of antibiotics like metronidazole have been reported to cause cerebellar ataxia as a rare side effect. Ornidazole, the newest derivative of this class, has a long half life and is very rarely known to cause cerebellar ataxia. Here, we report a 61-year-old patient who developed ataxia due to ornidazole to highlight an unusual adverse event that improved rapidly after dis...