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What Is Ataxia
The word ataxia is Greek in origin and refers to a number of similar conditions that are characterized by unsteady, clumsy motions of the limbs or trunk due to the degradation of the gross coordination of muscular movements.
Ataxia usually occurs when the nervous system portion that is responsible
for controlling and regulating movement becomes damaged. People who suffer from ataxia experience muscular failure and control in both their lower limbs and upper limbs that clinically manifests as a lack of balance and coordination or abnormal gait.
Types of Ataxia
Ataxias can be broadly categorized ito two groups:
Hereditary Ataxia
These are genetic in nature, that is to say that they are caused by a certain defect or anomaly in a particular gene that happens to be that way during the foetal development of the person. Hereditary ataxias are further subdivided into the so-called Autosomal Dominant and the Autosomal Recessive. The autosomal dominant inheritance means a genetic pattern whereby the ataxia-causing gene is found on an autosome (non-sex chromosome) that affects both males and females equally. What this means is that an offspring of a parent with a dominant ataxia causing autosome has a 50% likelihood of inheriting the mutative gene and a corresponding 50% of not inheriting the ataxia gene.
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