Short and valid assessment of apraxia in Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

Background Valid assessment of apraxia in usually non-apraxic Parkinson’s disease helps to delineate atypical parkinsonism frequently associated with apraxia. Furthermore, in a subgroup of late Parkinson’s disease apraxia, typically the ideomotor subtype, may gradually superimpose onto parkinsonian motor symptoms contributing to defective manual skill. Here we evaluate the utility of a brief, standardized test, the apraxia screen of TULIA (AST). Methods Seventy five Parkinson’s disease patients were tested with the AST. Parkinsonian motor deficits were measured using Movement Disorders Society-Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) part III and difficulties in activities of daily living (ADL) by modified MDS-UPDRS part II (eating, dressing, personal hygiene, and writing). Results No association was found between the AST and MDS-UPDRS part III, indicating that AST discriminates well (discriminative validity) between apraxia and parkinsonism. Furthermore, AST was associated with ADL and Hoehn & Yahr stage (convergent validity). Conclusions AST is a short and valid test to rule out or detect apraxia in Parkinson’s disease.

A third-person perspective on co-speech action gestures in Parkinson's disease

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Deficient supplementary motor area at rest: Neural basis of limb kinetic deficits in Parkinson's disease

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Apraxia for differentiating Alzheimer’s disease from subcortical vascular dementia and mild cognitive impairment

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