Objective: To investigate whether gait measures from wearable inertial sensors were sensitive to ataxia and related to SARA scores in patients with SCA.

Background: Clinical trials on spinocerebellar ataxias are hampered by the lack of objective measures to precisely measure the disease severity, progression, and clinical efficacy. Gait impairments precede symptoms in patients with spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) and may be valid surrogate markers of disease severity.

Methods: Twenty one patients with SCA (mean age 61 years) and 34 control subjects (mean aged 58 years) underwent SARA testing. SARA total scores ranged from 0 (prodromal) to 25. The subjects wore 2 inertial sensors on their feet and walked for 2 minutes at their normal walking pace.

Results: Step duration, double support time, and foot angle at heel strike were all very sensitive to ataxia (p<.02). In addition to these gait measure, other gait measures including gait speed, cadence, foot elevation at mid-swing, and toe off angle were significantly (p<.003) related to the total SARA score (r=.53 - .82). The figure shows the relationship between the total SARA score and double support, calculated as the percentage of gait cycle while both feet are in contact with the ground.

Conclusions: Objective measure of gait with wireless inertial sensors provides promising, practical measures of severity cerebellar ataxia for clinical trials and clinical practice. Future analysis will determine the most sensitive measures of gait in prodromal SCA, examine test-retest reliability of gait measures, and evaluate sensitivity to progression of disease.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/objective-measures-of-ataxic-gait-using-wearable-inertial-sensors/