Effect of rivastigmine on mobility of patients with higher-level gait disorder: a pilot exploratory study

Gait Disorder in a Cohort of Patients With Mild and Moderate Alzheimer's Disease

Gait disturbance results in an increase in the risk of falls in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). The falls are events that might be related to an increase in the number of fractures, loss of mobility, being bedridden, early institutionalization, and increased use of medication. Therefore, the reduction in the number of falls is important for the maintenance of the functional independence of the patients as well as for the prevention of sequelae resulting from those events. Alterations in the gait occur very frequently in AD, and the gait disturbance occurs relatively early in the course of the disease. This study has important implications for public health and clinical practice. This study and previous studies have reported that abnormal gait predicts greater risk of falls, dementia, institutionalization, and death. The high prevalence and incidence of abnormal gait and its association with multiple adverse outcomes in older adults require urgent attention. Our results allow us to identify the risk factors.

Evidence of multidomain mild cognitive impairment in idiopathic intracranial hypertension

BACKGROUND

Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH), a disorder of unknown etiology, may occur in all age groups, but is most common in young obese women. Goals of treatment are to preserve vision and alleviate symptoms, including intractable headache, pulsatile tinnitus, and nausea. Cognitive function is not addressed routinely during clinical evaluation of IIH patients. The aim of our study was to test whether there is cognitive impairment in IIH patients and to evaluate the nature and characteristics of cognitive functions.

METHODS

Design-Prospective cross-sectional observational study; Setting-Institutional;Study population-Thirty consecutive IIH patients (3 men and 27 women), mean age at time of testing was 34.4 years; Procedures-All participants completed a cognitive test battery; Outcome measures-Impairment of non-verbal memory, executive function, visual spatial processing, attention, motor skills, problem solving, and information processing speed in IIH patients.

RESULTS

Mean scores for all domain index scores were below average for age and education. The global cognitive score, attention, and visual spatial indices had the lowest scores.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results indicate that patients with IIH have mild cognitive impairment. All domain measures apart from memory showed a statistically significant difference from normal individuals, indicating that there is a form of multidomain cognitive impairment in IIH. The relationship between cognitive impairment and chronically elevated intracranial pressures and its role in contributing to patient morbidity requires further study.