This randomized controlled trial examined the effect of a 3-month exercise programme on neuropsychological function in a population of very elderly institutionalized women. Baseline neuropsychological testing was performed, and following 3 months of exercise or control intervention, subjects were retested 3-7 days after the completion of the study period. Apart from the Word Fluency Test, there was no significant improvement in any of the neuropsychological test scores. This study may not have shown any significant improvement in neuropsychological function because our exercise programme was too light to improve aerobic fitness, or because neuropsychological tests were repeated 3-7 days after exercise was completed and any acute effects of exercise may have disappeared by that time.

We have tested the hypothesis that the Colles' fracture is due, not simply to bone loss at the menopause, but to postural instability in a subset of postmenopausal women such that they are rendered more liable to fall. We have measured bone mass by dual photon spinal densitometry and single photon wrist densitometry and measured postural sway in 19 postmenopausal women with a history of Colles' fracture. Our results show that not only do Colles' fracture subjects have a small reduction in bone mass but they have a significantly increased degree of postural sway, a finding which has previously been recognized to characterize older subjects with recurrent falls.

Background: Despite the ubiquity of cognitive assessments using the MMSE, there has been little investigation of currently unscored features of the MMSE sentence item relevant to behavior and language in patients with behavioral variant Frontotemporal Dementia (bvFTD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD).Objective: To describe and compare the unscored content and grammar elements of the MMSE sentence item in patients with bvFTD and AD.Methods: Categorization of predefined content and grammar elements of the MMSE sentence was performed by two blinded raters in patients with bvFTD (n = 74) and AD (n = 84). Chi-square and ANCOVAs were conducted to identify differences between the diagnostic groups. A multinomial logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine whether these features aid in the prediction of diagnosis of bvFTD or AD.Results: A higher proportion of patients with bvFTD wrote sentences addressed to the examiner (22.7% vs. 4.7%, X2 = 11.272, p = 0.001) and about interpersonal relationships (35.3% vs. 16.0%, X2 = 10.139, p = 0.017) in comparison to those with AD. The number of words written was lower in patients with AD and was positively correlated with lower total MMSE scores in AD but not in bvFTD (AD: r = 0.370, p < 0.001; FTD: r = 0.209, p = 0.07). Assessment of the MMSE sentence content and grammar variables did not add to the prediction bvFTD or AD diagnosis beyond the variance explained by age and total MoCA score.Conclusions: Patients with bvFTD and AD showed differences in aspects of the content of the written MMSE sentence item, though these differences did not aid in the diagnosis prediction.