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Suggest Treatment For Lack Of Balance And Pins And Needles Sensation
Question: My friend is suffering from a lack of balance and unable to walk in a straight line. Her judgement of distances is not good and she frequently expeiences pins and needles in both hands. She is 70 years old.
Brief Answer:
She is having ataxia.Needs evaluation.
Detailed Answer:
Hi XXXX,
Thanks for being on healthcaremagic.com.
I am Dr.Ajay Panwar,a neurologist,here to answer your query.
If your friend would have presented to me as an outpatient with this clinical description,I would have made a clear impression of 'ataxia'.
I would have asked a few questions in order to answer the query better-
1)Since when she is having these complaints?
2)Was it acute in onset or chronic?
3)Was it preceded by fever?
4)Is she having history of alcohol intake?Alcoholism can cause cerebellar atrophy.
5)Is she having any significant drug history?Medicines like phenytoin can cause cerebellar atrophy.
6)Any history of falls and loss of consciousness?
7)Any past medical history?like Diabetes or any other comorbidity?
She probably has an acquired ataxia with neuropathy(suggested by pins and needles in hands) and needs some investigations for evaluation,which are-
1)Blood sugar-fasting and post prandial
2)Thyroid function tests
3)Serum vitamin E levels
4)Magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) Brain
5)She may need a cerebrospinal fluid evaluation(depending on the history).
Meanwhile,please provide answers to the leading questions I asked and get the investigations(Blood sugar,Thyroid function tests and MRI Brain) done and share the results here.
Waiting for your follow-up question.
Dr.Ajay Panwar,
MD,DM(Neurology)
She is having ataxia.Needs evaluation.
Detailed Answer:
Hi XXXX,
Thanks for being on healthcaremagic.com.
I am Dr.Ajay Panwar,a neurologist,here to answer your query.
If your friend would have presented to me as an outpatient with this clinical description,I would have made a clear impression of 'ataxia'.
I would have asked a few questions in order to answer the query better-
1)Since when she is having these complaints?
2)Was it acute in onset or chronic?
3)Was it preceded by fever?
4)Is she having history of alcohol intake?Alcoholism can cause cerebellar atrophy.
5)Is she having any significant drug history?Medicines like phenytoin can cause cerebellar atrophy.
6)Any history of falls and loss of consciousness?
7)Any past medical history?like Diabetes or any other comorbidity?
She probably has an acquired ataxia with neuropathy(suggested by pins and needles in hands) and needs some investigations for evaluation,which are-
1)Blood sugar-fasting and post prandial
2)Thyroid function tests
3)Serum vitamin E levels
4)Magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) Brain
5)She may need a cerebrospinal fluid evaluation(depending on the history).
Meanwhile,please provide answers to the leading questions I asked and get the investigations(Blood sugar,Thyroid function tests and MRI Brain) done and share the results here.
Waiting for your follow-up question.
Dr.Ajay Panwar,
MD,DM(Neurology)
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Vinay Bhardwaj
Answered by
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