Abstract
Background
Alzheimer’s dementia (AD) is a progressive disease that threatens the self-care and quality of life of elderly people. Early diagnosis and early treatment are crucial.
Aim
To examine the difference in executive function of patients with AD by analyzing their performance in gait analysis (Vicon MX system) and a trial making test (TMT) while counting forward or backward.
Methods
Ten elderly persons who had been diagnosed by neurological specialists with mild AD were selected as study participants. Of these patients, 2 were men and 8 were women, and the average age was 74.0 ± 8.6 years. An additional group of 10 elderly persons without AD and matched according to age and sex constituted a control group.
Results
The average Mini-Mental State Examination score was 17.7 ± 4.1, and the average clinical dementia rating scale score was 0.8 ± 0.3. We found that backward counting of 3 digits during gait performance in mild AD patients elicited substantial changes in velocity, cadence, coefficient of variation of the stride length, and stride time compared with those of the control group. Regarding upper extremity performance, all TMT tasks were highly sensitive in revealing differences in reaction time between the mild AD group and the control group.
Discussion
Dual-task challenges for examining gait parameters and TMT performance can reveal obvious impairment of executive motor function in patients with very mild AD.
Conclusion
Dual-task motor tests of the upper extremities can be used as screening tools for detecting AD at an early stage.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Prencipe M, Casini AR, Ferretti C et al (1996) Prevalence of dementia in an elderly rural population: effects of age, sex, and education. J Neurol Neurosur Ps 60:628–633
Liu HC, Lin KN, Teng EL et al (1995) Prevalence and subtypes of dementia in Taiwan: a community survey of 5297 individuals. J Am Geriatr Soc 43:144–149
Malloy PF, Richardson ED (1994) Assessment of frontal lobe functions. J Neuropsych Clin N 6:399–410
Sheridan PL, Solomont J, Kowall N et al (2003) Influence of executive function on locomotor function: divided attention increases gait variability in Alzheimer’s disease. J Am Geriatr Soc 51:1633–1637
Ble A, Volpato S, Zuliani G et al (2005) Executive function correlates with walking speed in older persons: the InCHIANTI study. J Am Geriatr Soc 53:410–415
Visser H (1983) Gait and balance in senile dementia of Alzheimer’s type. Age Ageing 12:296–301
de Melo Coelho FG, Stella F, de Andrade LP et al (2012) Gait and risk of falls associated with frontal cognitive functions at different stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn 19:644–656
Nakamura T, Meguro K, Sasaki H (1996) Relationship between falls and stride length variability in senile dementia of the Alzheimer type. Gerontology 42:108–113
Callisaya ML, Blizzard L, Schmidt MD, Martin KL, McGinley JL, Sanders LM, Srikanth VK (2011) Gait, gait variability and the risk of multiple incident falls in older people: a population-based study. Age Ageing 40:481–487
Manckoundia P, Pfitzenmeyer P, d’Athis P et al (2006) Impact of cognitive task on the posture of elderly subjects with Alzheimer’s disease compared to healthy elderly subjects. Mov Disord 21:236–241
Taylor ME, Ketels MM, Delbaere K et al (2012) Gait impairment and falls in cognitively impaired older adults: an explanatory model of sensorimotor and neuropsychological mediators. Age Ageing 41:665–669
Buchner DM, Larson EB (1987) Falls and fractures in patients with Alzheimer-type dementia. JAMA 257:1492–1495
Muir SW, Gopaul K, Odasso MM (2012) The role of cognitive impairment in fall risk among older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Age Ageing 41:299–308
van Iersel MB, Kessels RP, Bloem BR et al (2008) Executive functions are associated with gait and balance in community-living elderly people. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 63:1344–1349
Ijmker T, Lamoth CJ (2012) Gait and cognition: the relationship between gait stability and variability with executive function in persons with and without dementia. Gait Posture 35:126–130
McGough EL, Kelly VE, Logsdon RG et al (2011) Associations between physical performance and executive function in older adults with mild cognitive impairment: gait speed and the timed “up & go” test. Phys Ther 91:1198–1207
Pei YC, Chou SW, Lin PS et al (2008) Eye-hand coordination of elderly people who practice Tai Chi Chuan. J Formos Med Assoc 107:103–110
Hodges JR, Patterson K (1995) Is semantic memory consistently impaired early in the course of Alzheimer’s disease? Neuroanatomical and diagnostic implications. Neuropsychologia 33:441–459
Welsh K, Butters N, Hughes J (1991) Detection of abnormal memory decline in mild cases of Alzheimer’s disease using CERAD neuropsychological measures. Arch Neurol 48:27–281
Grady CL, Haxby JV, Horwitz B et al (1988) Longitudinal study of the early neuropsychological and cerebral metabolic changes in dementia of the Alzheimer type. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 10:576–596
Schwenk M, Zieschang T, Oster P et al (2010) Dual-task performances can be improved in patients with dementia: a randomized controlled trial. Neurology 74:1961–1968
Allali G, Dubois B, Assal F et al (2010) Frontotemporal dementia: pathology of gait? Mov Disord 25:731–737
van Kan GA, Rolland Y, Gillette-Guyonnet S et al (2012) Gait speed, body composition, and dementia. The EPIDOS-Toulouse cohort. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 67:425–432
Jamour M, Becker C, Synofzik M et al (2012) Gait changes as an early indicator of dementia. Z Gerontol Geriatr 45:40–44
Allan LM, Ballard CG, Burn DJ et al (2005) Prevalence and severity of gait disorders in Alzheimer’s and non-Alzheimer’s dementias. J Am Geriatr Soc 53:1681–1687
Acknowledgments
This project was supported by research funding from the National Science Council of Taiwan, R. O. C. (NSC96-2314-B-182S-046-MY3).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare there is no conflict of interest.
Human and Animal Rights
The authors’ declare that they have no violation of human rights.
Informed consent
All inform consents are obtained before study entry.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lin, YC., Hsu, WC., Wu, CK. et al. Comparison of motor performance of upper and lower extremities in dual-task tests in patients with mild Alzheimer’s dementia. Aging Clin Exp Res 28, 491–496 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-015-0441-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-015-0441-1