Ataxia is an important clinical sign of cerebellar pathology, but how is it actually described?
Stance ataxia: inability to stand with feet together for more than 30 seconds
Gait ataxia
Sensory ataxia: the first 2 elements, in addition to a positive Romberg sign
Truncal ataxia: oscillation of body while sitting or standing
Limb ataxia: functional impairment in performing actions such as writing or buttoning and improves with slowing down the movement
Dysdiadokinesia: impairment of rapidly alternating movement
Intention tremor: tested by finger-to-nose and heel-to-shin.
Dysmetria: pastpointing or undershooting on finger-chasing or shin-tap.
Dysarthria: irregular and slow speech with unnecessary hesitation
Nystagmus and other ocular disturbances, such as ocular flutter and opsoclonus.
The first 3 are present in both cerebellar pathology and loss of proprioceptive input, the rest are usually due to cerebellar pathology or ataxic syndrome.
References
Ashizawa T and Xia G. Ataxia. Continuum 2016;22(4):1208-1226
