cerebral ataxia

This is to seek help for my mother.who is 46yrs old. Having difficulty in balancing her body movements.finds it very difficult to walk without help.she has got slurred speech.cannot write as she used to write earlier..we had a MRI scan done.It said
there are diffuse cerebellar and pontine atrophic changes with dialation of folias and the 4th ventricle.
Atrophic changes in the cerebellum and brain stem? Olivo-Ponto-cerebellar degeneration.

Its been 4 yrs now since she is suffering from this problem.
I wanted to know whether the stem cell treatment will be helpful in this regard.What about the buspirone treatment??

Please let me know as to what treatment is there for this..

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hello.

Stem cell transplant is still at an initial phase. There are reports of its effective use, but it is difficult to say how much it will help with the Olivo-Ponto-Cerebellar atrophy. But if you have the facilities, there is no reason why you should not try it.

Buspirone helps only mild to moderate cerebellar ataxia cases. Your mother appears to have at least a moderate level of cerebellar ataxia. You may try Buspirone.

Some benefit can also be had from dopaminergic medicines such as levodopa, bromocriptine and amantadine.

Regards

[toni42]

The doctors say I have acute cerebellar ataxia which I don't agree with. My symptoms are difficulty writing,no balance,wheelchair bound,blurred vision,slurred speech,light sensitivity. Been like this for 7 years now and I'm 42 years old. Went to the doctors 2 days ago to get a check-up and have some test repeated because those tests were done over 3 years ago but they gave me no blood-work or any kind of e-rays. They put me on sinement 25mg and lodosyln cr 25mg with no diagnosis now,just having neurological symptoms
(skeptical) about medicine and diagnosis that I start sunday
Can you help me!!!