Abstract
Background and Purpose: The Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia (SARA) was developed to evaluate ataxia severity with spinocerebellar degeneration. However, there have so far been few studies regarding ataxia evaluation in stroke patients using the SARA. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the usefulness of the SARA for evaluating ataxic severity of stroke patients.Methods: Eighteen adult patients who underwent physical therapy for ataxia after a posterior circulation stroke were examined between June 2011 and July 2012. The correlations between the SARA or National Institute of the Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score and Barthel Index (BI), Functional Ambulation Category (FAC) one week after stroke onset, or length of hospital stay were investigated.Results: The scores on the SARA correlated significantly with the BI scores (p=0.001, r=−0.725), FAC (p<0.001, r=−0.800) and length of stay (p<0.001, r=0.874). The scores on the NIHSS did not correlate with the BI scores, FAC or length of hospital stay.Conclusions: The SARA score was found to closely correlated with the gait status, ADL dependency and length of hospital stay in stroke patients with ataxia and it is therefore considered to be a useful functional measure for such patients, because the SARA provided a compensated evaluation of neurological symptoms that cannot be reflected are not be reflected in the finding of the NIHSS.
