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Ideomotor apraxia test: a new test of imitation of gestures for elderly people
Author(s) -
DobignyRoman N.,
Dieudonnemoinet B.,
Tortrat D.,
Verny M.,
Forotte B.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
european journal of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.881
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1468-1331
pISSN - 1351-5101
DOI - 10.1046/j.1468-1331.1998.560571.x
Subject(s) - apraxia , imitation , gesture , audiology , cognitive impairment , test (biology) , medicine , cognition , psychology , physical medicine and rehabilitation , cognitive psychology , aphasia , psychiatry , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , computer science , paleontology , biology
Ideomotor apraxia is one the earliest disturbances in Alzheimer's disease(AD); no test of this disturbance has yet been validated for elderly people. We propose a test of meaningless gesture imitation and its relevance;in elderly people is studied. The Ideomotor Aprazia Test (IAT) consists of showing 10 gestures. Each item is graded from 0 to 3. IAT was carried;out on 55 patients with AD (mean age:86.8 ± 6.8(71–100); mean MMS score: 14.6 ± 6.3) and 26 elderly patients without cognitive impairment (mean age:84.1 ± 7.5(70–100); mean MMS score:27.5 ± 1.9). The inter‐rater relilability, a threshold, the apparent sensitivity and specificity and the relationship bestween the MMS score and the ideomotor apraxia score were determined. The mean apraxia score was 14.9 ± 7.3 in the AD group and 28 ± 1.6 in the normal group (P < 0.0001). Inter‐rater agreement is excellent (P = 0.995). The threshold is 27. The apparent sensitivity and specificity are very good (95% and 98%, respectively). The correlataion between the MMS score and ideomotor apraxia score. IAT is the first test that evaluates meaningless gesture imitating capacity in an elderly population. It is easy and quick‐to‐perform test, useful routienly for diagnois of AD and is correlatead with the severity of cognitive impairment.