Journal Article
Quantitative Gait and Balance Outcomes for Ataxia Trials: Consensus Recommendations by the Ataxia Global Initiative Working Group on Digital-Motor Biomarkers
Winfried Ilg; Sarah Milne; Tanja Schmitz-Hübsch; Lisa Alcock; Lukas Beichert; Enrico Bertini; Norlinah Mohamed Ibrahim; Helen Dawes; Christopher M. Gomez; Hasmet Hanagasi; Kirsi M. Kinnunen; Martina Minnerop; Andrea H. Németh; Jane Newman; Yi Shiau Ng; Clara Rentz; Bedia Samanci; Vrutangkumar V. Shah; Susanna Summa; Gessica Vasco; James McNames; Fay B. Horak
The Cerebellum · Vol. 23, Issue 4 · pp. 1566-1592 · 2023
Abstract
With disease-modifying drugs on the horizon for degenerative ataxias, ecologically valid, finely granulated, digital health measures are highly warranted to augment clinical and patient-reported outcome measures. Gait and balance disturbances most often present as the first signs of degenerative cerebellar ataxia and are the most reported disabling features in disease progression. Thus, digital gait and balance measures constitute promising and relevant performance outcomes for clinical trials. This narrative review with embedded consensus will describe evidence for the sensitivity of digital gait and balance measures for evaluating ataxia severity and progression, propose a consensus protocol for establishing gait and balance metrics in natural history studies and clinical trials, and discuss relevant issues for their use as performance outcomes.