ORPHA:247234
Sporadic adult-onset ataxia of unknown etiology
Also known as: Idiopathic late-onset cerebellar ataxia · SAOA
Publications
192
58.3th percentile
Trials
0
Interventional, condition-specific
Researchers
1,064
Distinct authors in sample
Gene link
—
Readiness
2/6
Stages with a signal
Clinical definition (Orphanet)
A rare non- degenerative disease characterized by a slowly cerebellar syndrome (with of stance and gait, upper limb dysmetria and intention tremor, ataxic speech, and oculomotor abnormalities), presenting in adulthood (at around 50 years of age), that is not due to a known cause. Extracerebellar symptoms (e.g., decreased vibration sense and absent or decreased ankle reflexes), polyneuropathy and mild autonomic dysfunction may also be present. Mild cognitive impairment has also rarely been reported.
How rare: 1-9 / 100 000 — about one to nine people per hundred thousand.
Cross-references
Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.
- MONDO:0016591
- UMLS:C4518339
Additional Mondo synonyms (1)
idiopathic late-onset cerebellar ataxia
Research stages
Trial readiness signals
Where this condition sits on an open-data research pipeline — not how close a treatment is, and not medical advice. Empty stages often mean “not in these databases under this Mondo ID,” not “impossible.”
2/6 stages with a signal
Research-stage checklist from open sources (GenCC, literature, Monarch when enriched, ClinicalTrials.gov). Not a prognosis or care recommendation.
- Gene identifiedNot found
No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build
- LiteraturePresent
192 matched papers (109 in last 10 years) Source
- Phenotype characterisedPresent
28 HPO annotations (e.g. Visual loss; Gaze-evoked nystagmus; Memory impairment) Source
- Animal modelNot found
No Alliance genotype “model of” associations via Monarch for these Mondo IDs
- Orphan designationNot found
No FDA or EMA orphan-drug designation matched this disease via UMLS or preferred name Source
- Interventional trialNot found
No matched interventional trial under our ClinicalTrials.gov rules
Biology
Genes and phenotypes
Gene–disease validity from GenCC, plus phenotypes and animal models joined from Monarch Initiative via Mondo ID — not a clinical diagnosis aid.
Do we know what causes it?
Not yet — the cause hasn't been pinned down in GenCC.
No strong gene–disease assertion joined for this Orphanet entity.
Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)
28
Associated phenotypes · MONDO:0016591
- Visual loss
- Gaze-evoked nystagmus
- Memory impairment
- Cerebellar cortical atrophy
- Spasticity
Showing 5 of 28 — open Monarch for the full list.
Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)
None returned for this Mondo ID. Empty here is not proof that no model organism work exists under another name or gene.
Monarch fetch 2026-07-29
Therapies
Designations, candidates, and chemicals
FDA OOPD and EMA orphan designations, Open Targets clinical candidates, and CTD chemical associations via MyDisease.info. These never change the interventional-trial headline.
Orphan designation (FDA · EMA)
No designation matched this disease via UMLS or preferred name on the FDA OOPD mirror or EMA orphan register. Absence here is not proof that none exists under another wording.
Open Targets candidates
No drugs or clinical candidates returned for this Mondo ID on Open Targets.
CTD chemicals (MyDisease.info)
No CTD chemical associations returned for this Mondo ID.
Literature
Is anyone studying this?
192
192 papers have ever been published on this condition (under this name). For scale, breast cancer has over 700,000. Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=3967) is 59.
192 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 59 (publications denominator n=3967).
109 in the last 10 years · medium confidence · 58.3th percentile (publications denominator)
Phrase hits: 192 · MeSH hits: 0
Who's working on it?
1,064
Distinct author names in 192 sampled papers — named people below.
Who's working on it?
No interventional trial matched this name; these authors publish on it in the sampled literature — a practical starting point for contact.
- 01Klockgether T12 papers · 2026
Department of Neurology, University of Tübingen, West Germany.
Papers in Europe PMC - 02
- 03Timmann D10 papers · 2025
Department of Neurology, Essen University Hospital, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
Papers in Europe PMC - 04Schmahmann JD8 papers · 2024
Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. jschmahmann@partners.org
Papers in Europe PMC - 05Filla A7 papers · 2023
From the Department of Neurology (I.G., T.K.), University Hospital of Bonn; German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) (I.G., H.J., B.P., T.K.), Bonn; Institute of Medical Genetics and Applied Genomics (F.H., M.S.) and Department of Neurodegenerative Diseases (L.S., M.S.), Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen; Department of Neurology (H.J.), Heidelberg University Hospital; Department of Neurology (S.V.), Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg; German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) (S.V., J.M.), Magdeburg; German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) (L.S., M.S.), Tübingen, Germany; Department of Neurology (C.T., I.M.W.), Oslo University Hospital; Faculty of Medicine (C.T.), Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Norway; Department of Neurology (S.B., A.E.), Medical University Innsbruck, Austria; Department of Neurology (B.v.d.W., J.v.G.), Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands; Department of Neurology (C.K., A.D.), University of Rostock; German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) (C.K., A.D.), Rostock; Department of Neurology (J.-S.K.), University of Frankfurt; Department of Neurology (D.T.), Essen University Hospital, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany; Institute of Neurology (G.S.), Catholic University of Sacred Heart; SPInal REhabilitation Lab (SPIRE) (M.M.), Fondazione Santa Lucia, IRCCS, Rome, Italy; Department of Neurology (T.K., C.N.), Friedrich-Baur-Institute, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich; German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) (T.K., C.N.), Munich; Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy) (T.K.), Munich; Department of Neurology (C.G.), University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Germany; Department of Neuroscience and Reproductive and Odontostomatological Sciences (A.F.), Federico II University, Naples, Italy; Centogene AG (P.B.), Rostock, Germany; Pierre Louis Institute of Epidemiology and Public Health (S.T.d.M.), Pierre and Marie Curie University (UPMC); and AP-HP (S.T.d.M.), Biostatistics Unit, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France.
Papers in Europe PMC - 06Boesch S5 papers · 2023
Department of Neurology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Anichstrasse 35, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria.
Papers in Europe PMC - 07Harding AE5 papers · 1994Papers in Europe PMC
- 08Lee JY5 papers · 2026
Department of Neurology, SMG-SNU Boramae Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.
Papers in Europe PMC - 09Lin CR5 papers · 2024
Department of Neurology, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, US.
Papers in Europe PMC - 10Amokrane N4 papers · 2023
Department of Neurology, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, US.
Papers in Europe PMC
Clinical research
Is a treatment being tested?
0
interventional trials for this specific condition
No interventional trial testing a treatment matched this specific condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov (observational studies and pan-disease registries are listed separately when present).
Data as of 11 September 2026 · last trial check 11 September 2026
No matched interventional trials. This is true for 77.2% of diseases in the trials denominator (5501 of 7126). Here are the researchers publishing on it.
medium confidence · 38.6th percentile (trials denominator)
Recruiting interventional trials
From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set
No interventional trial testing a treatment was found for this specific condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov.
See who's working on it — people publishing on this disease are often the practical next contact when no trial is listed.
General rare disease registries you may be eligible for
These studies enroll across many rare conditions. They are not counted as evidence that anyone is studying this specific disease.
- NCT01793168·RECRUITING·Rare Disease Patient Registry & Natural History Study - Coordination of Rare Diseases at Sanford
Conditions: Rare Disorders · Undiagnosed Disorders · Disorders of Unknown Prevalence · Cornelia De Lange Syndrome
Other registries (secondary)
Broader net from EU CTIS, ISRCTN, and ICTRP when available — deduped against ClinicalTrials.gov IDs already counted above. Dual-model LLM relevance gates what we keep. These rows are not added to the interventional headline.
raw 0 · after dedupe 0 · already on CT.gov 0 · kept 0 · parent 0 · uncertain 0 · dropped 0 · fetched 2026-07-30
Source notes: ictrp: Error: ICTRP public search unavailable (WHO portal is SPA-only; SOAP needs partnership). Tried: https://apps.who.int/tri
No secondary-registry studies passed dual-model relevance for this condition name (after dedupe).
Where to find support
Condition-specific patient organisations, when Orphanet lists them, are on the disease’s Orphanet page. We also link umbrella groups that support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families.
Orphanet entry for Sporadic adult-onset ataxia of unknown etiology — check Associations / patient organisations on that page.
India — NPRD
Last verified 2026-07-26This ORPHAcode is not on our curated NPRD list (direct or Mondo-parent match). That does not decide clinical eligibility; families in India should ask a notified Centre of Excellence about current coverage.
Hand-curated for this project. ORPHAcode mappings are best-effort and may be incomplete or imprecise for umbrella categories. Parent (Mondo) matches mean the policy lists a broader category — confirm eligibility with a Centre of Excellence. Financial entitlements summarised from public policy statements and may change. This is not official government guidance.
How we counted this
Europe PMC query (preferred label + any corrected label + Orphanet and Mondo exact synonyms, stoplisted; unioned with resolved MeSH labels when available). UMLS / OMIM / NCIT cross-references are stored on the overview but are not added to the query string.
"Sporadic adult-onset ataxia of unknown etiology" OR "Sporadic adult-onset ataxia of the unknown etiology" OR "Idiopathic late-onset cerebellar ataxia"
ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):
"Sporadic adult-onset ataxia of unknown etiology" OR "Sporadic adult-onset ataxia of the unknown etiology" OR "Idiopathic late-onset cerebellar ataxia"
Study-type breakdown: 0 interventional · 0 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.
Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase; with hits: phrase
Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov
Synonyms dropped by stoplist: SAOA
Confidence reasoning
- Preferred label is multi-word and distinctive
- 1 synonym(s) dropped by stoplist (may under-count)
- No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus
Ingested 2026-07-27T10:30:31.539Z