Hello everyone, thanks for letting me join your community. My mum (aged 69) has recently been diagnosed with spinocerebellar ataxia and has had symptoms to do with dizziness, unsteadiness whilst walking and numbness in her feet.
She has however had a chronic cough (‘cough variant asthma’) for 25 years and despite multiple testing a cause for her chronic cough has never been established. A suggestion has been made that her chronic cough may be linked to her neurodegenerative disorder (as the cerebellum is one of the areas activated when someone coughs)
Has anyone else had a chronic cough before being diagnosed?
Hi Beryl it’s good to meet you my mum has literally just sent me an email saying she’s got places on the conference for her and me. Hopefully we’ll see you there??
Yes, I'll be there! I went last year for the first time, it was a really sociable event,
and the food was good!
By the way, I love your cat, he/she looks just like mine! xB
MrsMop said:
Hi Beryl it's good to meet you :) my mum has literally just sent me an email saying she's got places on the conference for her and me. Hopefully we'll see you there?? :)
I was diagnosed with cerebellar ataxia two yrs ago. I have had a chronic cough for 35 yrs. have visited Crawley, East SUrrey and Guys hospitals for cough. There is nothing wrong with me! I know differently. My doc for ataxia has never heard of coughs related
Thank you Dotcumb for your reply. It does make me wonder if certain conditions where the cause is not established could be related to an ataxia type or similar condition (considering the brain governs so much)
Hi MrsMop, I cough frequently, while eating, after eating, when drinking, on my own saliva. I've had a chest xray, which was negative (for anything that might cause one to cough). I chew gum after eating, seems to help me. My neuro said it's an ataxia related cough. My best to you...,;o)
I cough and clear my throat often. My dad, who I believe also has Ataxia(he was never diagnosed but had a lot of the same symptoms I do), also coughed and cleared his throat often. I think the Ataxia causes this.
I know I am replying to this 2 years after your question, but - YES! My mum had SCA with cough - it was first described by a Portuguese doctor in 2004 I think. They think its a type of SCA20.
My mum had all sorts of tests and bronchoscopy and asthma tests but her cough was exactly like the research paper describes.
Type SCA with cough into a search engine and all the info will come up.
Yes I have an unexplained chronic cough that started 10 years before my SCA started. The same is true for my brother. We never saw a connection, we blamed allergies. This is very interesting. Now of course I have swallowing issues and choke on food very easily so it is worse.
I have had a chronic cough for a long time, that has become worse since more symptoms have arrived. I cough in the middle of the night and sometimes don't even know until my husband wakes, My doctor suggests it is ataxia related and suggests sleeping with two pillows to prop my head. She said it could be that I am not swallowing my saliva when I sleep. During the day its like a spastic cough. My brother has it also.I have asthma, but all my xrays come back normal. When I took higher doses of gabapentin, the cough lessened. My guess, it has to do with the muscles in the lungs, they are being relaxed by the gabapentin
Recessive Spinocerebellar Ataxia with Paroxysmal Cough
Symptoms include Cerebellar atrophy, severe pattern of breathing related sleep disorders including sleep apnea and snoring.
It suggests the presence of a new form of recessive ataxia.
But, then I saw this.
Cerebellar Ataxia with Spasmodic Cough
Attacks of spasmodic coughing preceded ataxia for 1-3 decades, and were a reliable marker of the disorder. In recent years we have been progressively aware of the association of dominant ataxia with spasmodic cough in a few kindreds.
So, it seems there are two schools of thought. They agree that the cough precedes ataxia but there appears to be a difference of opinion as to whether it’s dominant or recessive. xB
Thank you so much Beryl for the information. As I have unknown SCA maybe this will give me some more clues. No neurologist has ever asked about a cough and I had no idea it may be related. I have a lot of reading to do! I am so grateful to everyone for sharing their experiences. It has been so helpful.
Beryl Park said:
I found this info relating to the post.
Recessive Spinocerebellar Ataxia with Paroxysmal Cough
Symptoms include Cerebellar atrophy, severe pattern of breathing related sleep disorders including sleep apnea and snoring. It suggests the presence of a new form of recessive ataxia.
But, then I saw this.
Cerebellar Ataxia with Spasmodic Cough
Attacks of spasmodic coughing preceded ataxia for 1-3 decades, and were a reliable marker of the disorder. In recent years we have been progressively aware of the association of dominant ataxia with spasmodic cough in a few kindreds.
So, it seems there are two schools of thought. They agree that the cough precedes ataxia but there appears to be a difference of opinion as to whether it's dominant or recessive. :-) xB
my mum has literally just sent me an email saying she’s got places on the conference for her and me. Hopefully we’ll see you there??