CEREBELLAR ATAXIA AS A PRESENTING FEATURE OF HYPOTHYROIDISM

Besides its typical features, hypothyroidism comes to notice sometimes with neurologic features like reversible cerebellar ataxia, dementia, peripheral neuropathy, coma, etc. Therefore hypothyroidism should be suspected in all cases of cerebellar ataxia, as it is easily treatable.

Here we illustrate a case of hypothyroidism initially reported with cerebellar ataxia.

A 40 year-old male presented with history of gait-ataxia. His investigations revealed frank primary hypothyroidism with positive anti-TPO antibody. The patient was put on thyroxine and he improved completely within eight weeks.

This case report emphasizes that hypothyroidism can present with ataxia as one of the initial features. Therefore, hypothyroidism should be considered in all cases of cerebellar ataxia as it is a reversible cause of ataxia.