Exploring the Potential of Scales to Assess Different Types of Ataxia: Meta-review

Ataxia is a coordination disorder that encompasses more than 300 neurological diseases and more than 200 types of hereditary ataxia. Depending on the pathology with which it is associated, the symptomatology present is different: balance and gait disturbance, dysdiadochokinesia, dysarthria, nystagmus, etc. Due to this heterogeneity, the assessment of ataxia is a complex task that is further hindered by the broad variety of existing tools, both specific to ataxia and related to a particular pathology, such as those that assess coordination and gait components. Analyse, organize and compare the structural and psychometric characteristics of the tools used for the assessment of different types of ataxia. A meta-review registered in PROSPERO was conducted following the PRISMA Checklist System. Six database were used and two blinded researchers selected the papers according the criteria. Five reviews were included in this study. The main psychometric properties of the 16 scales found to assess ataxia symptoms in different pathologies were analysed. Internal consistency and reliability obtained good-to-excellent values for the total score of the different scales and parameters studied. However, validity and sensitivity showed less homogeneous values. The scales that globally assess the severity of the disease stand out, with a great variety of scales, including the International Cooperative Ataxia Assessment Scale (ICARS) and the Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxias (SARA) as the most widely used.