Usefulness of the Scale for Assessment and Rating of Ataxia (SARA)

In this study, we examined the usefulness and validity of the Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia (SARA) in assessing cerebellar ataxia in 27 patients with spinocerebellar degeneration. The inter-rater reliability of the SARA scores between the two neurologists was high. The scores on SARA correlated significantly with the Barthel index and scores on the International Cooperative Ataxia Rating Scale (ICARS). Scores on ICARS and SARA did not correlate with the total length traveled (TLT) or the root mean square area (RMS) of body sways measured by body stabilometry. The time required to examine each patient for SARA was approximately 4 min, one-third the time required for ICARS. Our results indicate that SARA is useful for the evaluation of cerebellar ataxic patients in daily examinations and that body sway analysis by stabilometry is influenced by factors other than cerebellar ataxia, such as muscle weakness, which should be taken into account when body sway analysis is used to evaluate the severity of cerebellar ataxia.