The merit of proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy in the longitudinal assessment of spinocerebellar ataxias and multiple system atrophy-cerebellar type

Table 1 Demographic features of the subjects

			First MRS assessment		Second MRS assessment
	Number of patients	Age (years)	Disease duration (months)	SARA scores	Disease duration (months)	SARA scores	Interval in between 2 MRS assessments (months)
p ^#		0.03	0.326	0.195	0.736	0.114	0.680
SCA2	5	60.6 ± 11.1^*	3.7 ± 3.03	8.4 ± 3.13	43.0 ± 15.47	17.13 ± 7.1	38.63 ± 13.21
SCA3	18	46.3 ± 10.0^*	6.14 ± 3.96	10.97 ± 6.28	49.91 ± 23.82	15.28 ± 5.23	43.78 ± 21.74
SCA6	3	59.0 ± 13.9	6.83 ± 2.36	12.5 ± 2.65	42.25 ± 15.2	19.0 ± 1.41	34.5 ± 17.68
MSA-C	12	60.6 ± 6.1^*	4.25 ± 2.20	15.29 ± 6.71	38.7 ± 12.33	22.35 ± 7.02	34.3 ± 12.82
HC	44	51.1 ± 17.9	--	--	--

SCA2: Spinocerebellar ataxia type 2; SCA3: Spinocerebellar ataxia type 3; SCA6: Spinocerebellar ataxia type 6; MSA: Multiple system atrophy- cerebellar type; HC: Healthy controls.
^*The patients with SCA 3 were significantly younger than those with SCA2 (p = 0.014) or MSA-C (p = 0.001).
^#Kruskal-Wallis test.

ISSN: 2053-8871