Clinical and genetic characteristics of sporadic adult-onset degenerative ataxia
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Abstract
Objective: To define the clinical phenotype and natural history of sporadic adult-onset degenerative ataxia and to identify putative disease-causing mutations.
Methods: The primary measure of disease severity was the Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia (SARA). DNA samples were screened for mutations using a high-coverage ataxia-specific gene panel in combination with next-generation sequencing.
Results: The analysis was performed on 249 participants. Among them, 83 met diagnostic criteria of clinically probable multiple system atrophy cerebellar type (MSA-C) at baseline and another 12 during follow-up. Positive MSA-C criteria (4.94 ± 0.74, p < 0.0001) and disease duration (0.22 ± 0.06 per additional year, p = 0.0007) were associated with a higher SARA score. Forty-eight participants who did not fulfill MSA-C criteria and had a disease duration of >10 years were designated sporadic adult-onset ataxia of unknown etiology/non-MSA (SAOA/non-MSA). Compared with MSA-C, SAOA/non-MSA patients had lower SARA scores (13.6 ± 6.0 vs 16.0 ± 5.8, p = 0.0200) and a slower annual SARA increase (1.1 ± 2.3 vs 3.3 ± 3.2, p = 0.0013). In 11 of 194 tested participants (6%), a definitive or probable genetic diagnosis was made.
Conclusions: Our study provides quantitative data on the clinical phenotype and progression of sporadic ataxia with adult onset. Screening for causative mutations with a gene panel approach yielded a genetic diagnosis in 6% of the cohort.
ClinicalTrials.gov registration: NCT02701036.
GLOSSARY
- INAS=
- Inventory of Non-Ataxia Signs;
- MSA=
- multiple system atrophy;
- MSA-C=
- multiple system atrophy cerebellar type;
- PHQ-9=
- Patient's Health Questionnaire;
- SAOA=
- sporadic adult-onset ataxia of unknown etiology;
- SARA=
- Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia;
- UMSARS=
- Unified MSA Rating Scale;
- VAS=
- visual analog scale;
- VUS=
- variant of uncertain clinical significance;
- WES=
- whole-exome sequencing
Footnotes
Go to Neurology.org for full disclosures. Funding information and disclosures deemed relevant by the authors, if any, are provided at the end of the article.
Supplemental data at Neurology.org
- Received February 6, 2017.
- Accepted in final form June 12, 2017.
- © 2017 American Academy of Neurology
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