Ataxia
What is ataxia?
The word "ataxia" comes from the Greek word "a taxis," which means "without order or without coordination." Thus, ataxia means without coordination.
Persons who are diagnosed with ataxia experience a failure of muscle control in their arms and legs which may result in a lack of balance, coordination, and possibly a disturbance in gait. Ataxia may affect the fingers, hands, arms, legs, body, speech, and even eye movements.
The word ataxia is often used to describe the incoordination of symptoms that may accompany infections, injuries, other diseases, and/or degenerative changes in the central nervous system. It also describes a group of specific degenerative diseases of the central nervous system called the hereditary and sporadic ataxias. The term ataxia is a symptom - it is not a specific diagnosis. Ataxia may also refer to a group, or family, of disorders.
Many ataxias are hereditary; however, some can occur in families with no previous history of ataxia. In this case, the ataxia is referred to as sporadic ataxia.