title: Fine Motor Function Skills in Patients with Parkinson Disease with and without Mild Cognitive Impairment.
abstract: The objective of this study was to investigate the relation between impaired fine motor skills in Parkinson disease (PD) patients and their cognitive status, and to determine whether fine motor skills are more impaired in PD patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) than in non-MCI patients.
  
  
  
  Twenty PD MCI and 31 PD non-MCI patients (mean age 66.7 years, range 50-84, 36 males/15 females), all right-handed, took part in a motor performance test battery. Steadiness, precision, dexterity, velocity of arm-hand movements, and velocity of wrist-finger movements were measured and compared across groups and analyzed for confounders (age, sex, education, severity of motor symptoms, and disease duration). Statistical analysis included t tests corrected for multiple testing, and a linear regression with stepwise elimination procedure was used to select significant predictors for fine motor function.
  
  
  
  PD MCI patients performed significantly worse in precision (p < 0.05), dexterity (p < 0.05), and velocity (arm-hand movements; p < 0.05) compared to PD non-MCI patients. The fine motor function skills were confounded by age.
  
  
  
  Fine motor skills in PD MCI patients are impaired compared to PD non-MCI patients. Investigating the relation between the fine motor performance and MCI in PD might be a relevant subject for future research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dahdal
authors.forename: Antonia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.forename: Menorca
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chaturvedi
authors.forename: Karolina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nowak
authors.forename: Anne D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Roesch
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fuhr
authors.forename: Ute
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Gschwandtner
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006225:Hand; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009048:Motor Skills; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis