title: Impaired ideomotor limb apraxia in cortical and subcortical dementia: a comparison of Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although ideomotor limb apraxia is often considered to occur only in dementia with cortical involvement like Alzheimer's disease (AD), it is also frequently seen in dementia with subcortical degeneration like Huntington's disease (HD).
  
  
  METHODS
  To assess the occurrence of ideomotor limb apraxia, 46 patients with HD (27 men) and 37 patients with AD (16 men), matched for cognitive performance, were assessed with an apraxia test battery containing tests of the imitation of meaningless hand and finger gestures, the performance of meaningful gestures and of pantomimic movements.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was a high frequency of ideomotor limb apraxia in both AD and HD patients. For the assessment of hands' imitation 13.5% of the AD patients and 41.3% of the HD patients were apraxic, for fingers' imitation 21.6% (AD) and 41.3% (HD) were apraxic, for gestures 27.0% (AD) and 32.6% (HD), and for the assessment of pantomimic movements 24.3% (AD) and 52.2% (HD) showed apraxia. In the AD patients, disease severity was related to the occurrence of apraxia.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Ideomotor limb apraxia is a common sign in both groups of patients, occurring in a high percentage. For particular neuropsychological deficits, including ideomotor limb apraxia, a division of dementia in a subcortical and cortical subtype seems to be clinically not meaningful.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Graz Medical University, Graz, Austria. anna.holl@klinikum-graz.at
authors.forename: Anna K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Holl
authors.forename: Rottraut
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ille
authors.forename: Leonora
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wilkinson
authors.forename: Daniela V
authors.initials: DV
authors.lastname: Otti
authors.forename: Elfriede
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hödl
authors.forename: Brigitte
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Herranhof
authors.forename: Karin M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Reisinger
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: Annamaria
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Painold
authors.forename: Etienne M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Holl
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Letmaier
authors.forename: Raphael M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Bonelli
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications*; D020240:Apraxia, Ideomotor / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests