Association between Cerebral Coordination Functions and Clinical Outcomes of Alzheimer’s Dementia

Abstract

Background: Alzheimer’s dementia (AD) is a degenerative disease that impairs cognitive function, initially, and then motor or other function, eventually. Motor coordination function impairment usually accompanies cognition impairment but it is seldom examined whether it can reflect the clinical outcomes of AD. Methods: 113 clinically diagnosed AD patients with a mean age of 78.9 ± 6.9 years underwent an annual neuropsychological assessment using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument (CASI), the Sum of Boxes of Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR-SB), and the CDR. The cerebral coordination function was evaluated through correlations among 15 joints with a kinetic depth sensor annually. An intra-individual comparison of both cognitive and motor coordination functions was performed to examine their correlations. Results: The changes in coordination function in the lower limbs can significantly reflect the clinical outcomes, MMSE (p < 0.001), CASI (p = 0.006), CDR (p < 0.001), and CDR-SB (p < 0.001), but the changes in upper limbs can only reflect the clinical outcome in CDR (p < 0.001). Conclusions: The use of a kinetic depth sensor to determine the coordination between joints, especially in lower limbs, can significantly reflect the global functional and cognitive outcomes in AD. Such evaluations could be another biomarker used to evaluate non-cognitive outcomes in AD for clinical and research purposes.