title: 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.
authors.affiliation: Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Department of Neurology, Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vanbellingen
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lungu
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lopez
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Baronti
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Müri
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hallett
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bohlhalter
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001072:Apraxias / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index