Why Does Parkinson's Disease Seem Like Ataxia?

Posted on Thu, 25 Sep 2014

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 25 Sep 2014 Answered on

Sat, 18 Oct 2014 Last reviewed on

Question : i was diagnosed in 2007 with parkensens, my symptons seem more like ataxita

Answered by Dr. Sudhir Kumar (6 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Both can be differentiated by clinical examination

Detailed Answer:
Hi,

Thank you for posting your query.

We can differentiate both the conditions- Parkinson's disease (PD) and ataxia by doing a good neurological examination.

In PD, the symptoms are tremors of hands, slowness of movements, rigidity of limbs and postural imbalance. Whereas, in ataxia, there is lack of co-ordination of hands and legs, associated with slurred speech.

An examination by a neurologist would help sort out the issue.

I hope my answer helps. Please get back if you have any follow up queries or if you require any additional information.

Wishing you good health,

Dr Sudhir Kumar MD (Internal Medicine), DM (Neurology) XXXXXXX Consultant Neurologist
Apollo Hospitals, XXXXXXX XXXXXXX
Click on this link to ask me a DIRECT QUERY: http://bit.ly/Dr-Sudhir-kumar
My BLOG: http://bestneurodoctor.blogspot.in

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar