Do Alzheimer's and Lewy body disease have discrete pathological signatures of gait?

Publication date: Available online 20 September 2019Source: Alzheimer's & DementiaAuthor(s): Ríona Mc Ardle, Brook Galna, Paul Donaghy, Alan Thomas, Lynn RochesterAbstractObjectiveWe aimed to refine the hypothesis that dementia has a unique signature of gait impairment reflective of underlying pathology by considering two dementia subtypes, Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Lewy body disease (LBD), and exploring the role of cognition in disease-specific gait impairments.BackgroundAccurately differentiating AD and LBD is important for treatment and disease management. Early evidence suggests gait could be a marker of dementia due to associations between discrete gait characteristics and cognitive domains.Updated HypothesisWe hypothesize that AD and LBD have unique signatures of gait, reflecting disease-specific cognitive profiles and underlying pathologies. An exploratory study included individuals with mild cognitive impairment or dementia due to LBD (n = 45) and AD (n = 36) and 29 older adult controls. An instrumented walkway quantified 16 gait characteristics reflecting five independent domains of locomotion (pace, rhythm, variability, asymmetry, and postural control). The LBD group demonstrated greater impairments in asymmetry and variability compared with AD; both groups were more impaired in pace and variability domains than controls. Executive dysfunction explained 11% of variance for gait variability in LBD, whereas global cognitive impairment explained 13.5% of varian...
Source: Alzheimer's and Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research