Has anyone ever heard about leakage of cerebrospinal fluid leaking and causing Ataxia? In 2011 I had a heart attack. Starting with coming home from the heart attack I have a constantly runny nose with frequent blood in it. The liquid is just like water without any color, smell, or taste, and three different ENT specialists suggested that it may be spinal fluid. A test on the fluid came back negative and neither one of the three specialists found any cause for it in the nasal passages. My ataxia attacks have been getting more severe and more frequent, and therefore I think that may be the test was a false negative and that the leakage may cause the ataxia. Any input?
After the birth of my daughter 25 years ago I had an epidural.I had a bad headache for days after and the Dr who came out said I was dehydrated and there may have some leakage from the spine and his recommendation was to drink plenty.
I haven't heard of it in connection with Ataxia but as we all know there can be many different causes.
Yes, Patsy, I had a brain MRI and it came back showing an apparently healthy cerebellum. It was this brain MRI that suggested that it may be episodic ataxia since EA would not be apparent - the cause is inside some of the cells only. Thank you for your kind words.
Patsy said:
Have you have Brain MRI ? I have known of brain tumour causing this but presumably that has already been ruled out.
Very worrying for you... I do hope you find out more. best wishes
If the ENT's can't find the cause then maybe it is coming from a different area of your body.
CSA can be caused from many different things but I haven't heard of spinal fluid and you said the runny nose was negative for spinal fluid so how can they releate that to the ataxia? What type of ataxia are they saying you have? and who says you have it? Have you had any MRI's?
Most names for diseases and syndromes come from what causes it, what symptoms it has, or what genes are involved. If you look for a cause of anything you cannot go by what it is named or who has already determined anything about it. That is what I do here - take a fresh look at my runny nose. Three different ENT specialists mentioned a CSF leakage as a possibility. One of them even said that there is an 84% chance that it is CSF leakage. Yet, when it came back negative he did not question it. With this high a likelyhood, I would question it. Also, the other ENT guys told me that they need a minimum of amount to test it, while this one tested a really tiny amount. I do not know if that can be conclusive.
CSF leakage in turn can cause all kinds of problems, especially affecting the hind brain. Ataxia is caused by some things in the cerebellum, which is in the back of the brain.
Kay said:
If the ENT's can't find the cause then maybe it is coming from a different area of your body.
CSA can be caused from many different things but I haven't heard of spinal fluid and you said the runny nose was negative for spinal fluid so how can they releate that to the ataxia? What type of ataxia are they saying you have? and who says you have it? Have you had any MRI's?
There is a way of checking if it is CSF, but that works only if you are able to catch quite a lot of it. There is one particular protein that is in CSF that does not exist anywhere else. As I already said, I never could catch enough of it. I did submit a very small amount for testing, but I believe it was not enough to be positive.
Searcher said:
I have had a runny nose almost every day since my symptoms started , its usually clear , watery liquid . But when it first started it was a thick reddish brown for about 6 weeks following Cervical spine surgery ,Neurosurgeon sent me to the ENT and he said its just normal aging and I may have a slight infection . ( i am only 50 ) He put me on Prednisone and that made all my other symptoms go into overtime mode . My joints swelled up , my feet turned black , the Ataxia got twice as bad , however when I stopped it all went back to normal within a day or two . Still had the runny nose though ....
Leaking spinal fluid does cause problems like those affecting ataxians and a shunt is used to stop it. like a water head baby. I asked for and got a test and came out negative. I do think with so many laboratory testing problems there could be need for a second test possibly. If you have a sketchy HMO or doctor I would think about it to give yourself peace of mind and other avenues to look at. Jerry
Hi Jerry,
I think that in my case no shunt would be necessary - only if the pressure inside drops too much and the brain settles. I believe that for me the pressures are fairly stable and affect only the thinking and functioning - the reproduction and the loss of CSF may be pretty much equal. I am just afraid of more serious problems to start in the future.