Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0007758 (cerebellar ataxia)
 3,609 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Vitamin B12 deficiency usually presents with pernicious anemia or various neuropsychiatric manifestations. Commonly seen neuropsychiatric manifestations include large fiber neuropathy, myelopathy (subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord), dementia, cerebellar ataxia, optic atrophy, psychosis and mood disorders. The present report highlights an unusual presentation of vitamin B12 deficiency- acute onset extrapyramidal syndrome in a 55-year-old man. The patient presented with a 10-day history of slowness of all activities including a slow gait, mild tremors of hands and low volume speech. On examination, he had features of mask-like facies, reduced blink rate and cogwheel rigidity. He was investigated for the possible causes and was found to have laboratory features of vitamin B12 deficiency. Other causes for acute onset parkinsonism were excluded by appropriate investigations. He showed a dramatic improvement following treatment with intramuscular vitamin B12 injections. At a five-year follow up, he was found to be functionally independent with no neurological deficits.
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PMID:Vitamin B12 deficiency presenting with an acute reversible extrapyramidal syndrome. 1580 74

The etiology of cerebellar ataxia (CA) is heterogeneous and includes easily identified and often reversible causes (i.e., drug toxicity and vitamin B12 deficiency) as well as irreversible degenerative conditions. It is the latter that poses a significant therapeutic challenge for practitioners treating this population of patients. To date, there are no U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved medications for the treatment of CA. The literature, consisting mostly of case reports, case series, and small clinical trials, is sparse and scattered. These studies are difficult to translate clinically because they often describe diverse study populations with various identified and unidentified genetic etiologies. In addition, the reported treatment duration is often brief, and it is uncertain whether any of these options provide substantially lasting benefits. In this article, we review published reports and studies to aid the practitioner counseling patients with degenerative ataxias.
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PMID:Treatment Options in Degenerative Cerebellar Ataxia: A Systematic Review. 3036 41