Top

Published in:

01-07-2013 | Neurology and Preclinical Neurological Studies - Original Article

Slow gait in MCI is associated with ventricular enlargement: results from the Gait and Brain Study

Authors: C. Annweiler, O. Beauchet, R. Bartha, M. Montero-Odasso

Published in: Journal of Neural Transmission | Issue 7/2013

Abstract

Slow gait is ubiquitous among older adults and predicts cognitive decline and progression to dementia. Age-related structural brain changes could be responsible for abnormal gait. The purpose of this study was to determine whether brain lateral ventricle volume, a measure of brain atrophy, was associated with gait velocity among older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), while considering the effects of age and brain vascular burden. Twenty community-dwellers with MCI, free of hydrocephalus, aged 76 years (69/80) [median (25th/75th percentile)] (35 % female) from the ‘Gait and Brain Study’ were included in this analysis. Quantitative gait performance was measured while steady-state walking at self-selected pace with a 6-m electronic portable walkway (GAITRite). Brain ventricle volume was quantified using semi-automated software from three-dimensional T₁-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. Age, white matter hyperintensity burden and Mini-Mental State Examination score were used as potential confounders. Median gait velocity was 118.7 cm/s (104.4/131.3). Median brain ventricle volume was 39.9 mL (30.0/46.6) with the left ventricle being slightly larger than the right (P = 0.052). Brain ventricle volume was inversely associated with gait velocity (adjusted β = −0.63, P = 0.046). Volume of both the ventricular main bodies and the temporal horns correlated inversely with gait velocity (respectively, P = 0.009, P = 0.008). Left ventricle volume correlated with decreased gait velocity (P = 0.002) while right ventricle did not (P = 0.068). Slower gait velocity was associated with larger brain ventricle volume in our sample of people with MCI independent of age, cerebrovascular burden and cognitive worsening. This result may help elucidate the trajectories of cognitive and gait declines in people with MCI.

Accomazzi V, Lazarowich R, Barlow CJ, Davey B, inventors, Cedara Software Corp, assignee (2005) Image region segmentation system and method. US Patent Application 20050031202

Alexander NB (1996) Gait disorders in older adults. J Am Geriatr Soc 44:434–451PubMed

American Psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 4th edn. American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC

Annweiler C, Beauchet O, Celle S, Roche F, Annweiler T, Allali G, Bartha R, Montero-Odasso M, On behalf of the WALK Team (Working group Angers-London for Knowledge) (2012a) Contribution of brain imaging to the understanding of gait disorders in Alzheimer’s disease: a systematic review. Am J Alzheimers Dis Other Demen 27:371–380PubMedCrossRef

Annweiler C, Montero-Odasso M (2012) Vascular burden as a substrate for higher-level gait disorders in older adults. A review of brain mapping literature. Panminerva Med 54:189–204PubMed

Annweiler C, Montero-Odasso M, Bartha R, Beauchet O, Bowman GL, Silbert L, Dodge H, Quinn J, Kaye J (2012b) Nutrient biomarker patterns, cognitive function, and MRI measures of brain aging. Neurology 78:1281–1282PubMedCrossRef

Baloh RW, Ying SH, Jacobson KM (2003) A longitudinal study of gait and balance dysfunction in normal older people. Arch Neurol 60:835–839PubMedCrossRef

Barberger-Gateau P, Fabrigoule C, Helmer C, Rouch I, Dartigues JF (1999) Functional impairment in instrumental activities of daily living: an early clinical sign of dementia? J Am Geriatr Soc 47:456–462PubMed

Beauchet O, Berrut G (2006) Gait and dual-task: definition, interest, and perspectives in the elderly. Psychol Neuropsychiatr Vieil 4:215–225PubMed

Beauchet O, Allali G, Berrut G, Hommet C, Dubost V, Assal F (2008) Gait analysis in demented subjects: interests and perspectives. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat 4:155–160PubMedCrossRef

Beauchet O, Allali G, Thiery S, Gautier J, Fantino B, Annweiler C (2011a) Association between high variability of gait speed and mild cognitive impairment: a cross-sectional pilot study. J Am Geriatr Soc 59:1973–1974PubMedCrossRef

Beauchet O, Freiberger E, Annweiler C, Kressig RW, Herrmann FR, Allali G (2011b) Test–retest reliability of stride time variability while dual tasking in healthy and demented adults with frontotemporal degeneration. J Neuroeng Rehabil 8:37PubMedCrossRef

Burns JM, Johnson DK, Watts A, Swerdlow RH, Brooks WM (2010) Reduced lean mass in early Alzheimer disease and its association with brain atrophy. Arch Neurol 67:428–433PubMedCrossRef

Camicioli R, Howieson D, Oken B, Sexton G, Kaye J (1998) Motor slowing precedes cognitive impairment in the oldest old. Neurology 50:1496–1498PubMedCrossRef

Camicioli R, Moore MM, Sexton G, Howieson DB, Kaye JA (1999) Age-related brain changes associated with motor function in healthy older people. J Am Geriatr Soc 47:330–334PubMed

Carmichael OT, Kuller LH, Lopez OL, Thompson PM, Dutton RA, Lu A, Lee SE, Lee JY, Aizenstein HJ, Meltzer CC, Liu Y, Toga AW, Becker JT (2007) Ventricular volume and dementia progression in the cardiovascular health study. Neurobiol Aging 28:389–397PubMedCrossRef

Colcombe SJ, Erickson KI, Raz N, Webb AG, Cohen NJ, McAuley E, Kramer AF (2003) Aerobic fitness reduces brain tissue loss in aging humans. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 58:176–180PubMedCrossRef

Colcombe SJ, Erickson KI, Scalf PE, Kim JS, Prakash R, McAuley E, Elavsky S, Marquez DX, Hu L, Kramer AF (2006) Aerobic exercise training increases brain volume in aging humans. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 61:1166–1170PubMedCrossRef

Corballis MC (1991) Left brain, right brain. Science 251:575–576PubMedCrossRef

Cummings JL (2009) Defining and labeling disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimers Dement 5:406–418PubMedCrossRef

de Laat KF, Tuladhar AM, van Norden AG, Norris DG, Zwiers MP, de Leeuw FE (2011) Loss of white matter integrity is associated with gait disorders in cerebral small vessel disease. Brain 134:73–83PubMedCrossRef

Dubois B, Albert ML (2004) Amnestic MCI or prodromal Alzheimer’s disease? Lancet Neurol 3:246–248PubMedCrossRef

Eggermont L, Swaab D, Luiten P, Scherder E (2006) Exercise, cognition and Alzheimer’s disease: more is not necessarily better. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 30:562–575PubMedCrossRef

Folstein MF, Folstein SE, McHugh PR (1975) “Mini-mental state”. A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. J Psychiatr Res 12:189–198PubMedCrossRef

Gottlieb J (2007) From thought to action: the parietal cortex as a bridge between perception, action, and cognition. Neuron 53:9–16PubMedCrossRef

Guo X, Steen B, Matousek M, Andreasson LA, Larsson L, Palsson S, Su V, Skoog I (2001) A population-based study on brain atrophy and motor performance in elderly women. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 56:M633–M637PubMedCrossRef

Guralnik JM, Ferrucci L, Pieper CF, Leveille SG, Markides KS, Ostir GV, Studenski S, Berkman LF, Wallace RB (2000) Lower extremity function and subsequent disability: consistency across studies, predictive models, and value of gait speed alone compared with the short physical performance battery. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 55:M221–M231PubMedCrossRef

Heuninckx S, Wenderoth N, Debaere F, Peeters R, Swinnen SP (2005) Neural basis of aging: the penetration of cognition into action control. J Neurosci 25:6787–6967PubMedCrossRef

Hoops S, Nazem S, Siderowf AD, Duda JE, Xie SX, Stern MB, Weintraub D (2009) Validity of the MoCA and MMSE in the detection of MCI and dementia in Parkinson disease. Neurology 73:1738–1745PubMedCrossRef

Hughes CP, Berg L, Danziger WL, Coben LA, Martin RL (1982) A new clinical scale for the staging of dementia. Br J Psychiatry 140:566–572PubMedCrossRef

Kressig RW, Beauchet O, European GAITRite Network Group (2006) Guidelines for clinical applications of spatio-temporal gait analysis in older adults. Aging Clin Exp Res 18:174–176

Kuller LH, Shemanski L, Manolio T, Haan M, Fried L, Bryan N, Burke GL, Tracy R, Bhadelia R (1998) Relationship between ApoE, MRI findings, and cognitive function in the Cardiovascular Health Study. Stroke 29:388–398PubMedCrossRef

Kuo HK, Leveille SG, Yu YH, Milberg WP (2007) Cognitive function, habitual gait speed, and late-life disability in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999–2002. Gerontology 53:102–110PubMedCrossRef

Longstreth WT Jr, Arnold AM, Manolio TA, Burke GL, Bryan N, Jungreis CA, O’Leary D, Enright PL, Fried L (2000) Clinical correlates of ventricular and sulcal size on cranial magnetic resonance imaging of 3,301 elderly people: the Cardiovascular Health Study. Neuroepidemiology 19:30–42PubMedCrossRef

Machin D, Campbell M, Fayers P, Pinol A (1997) Sample size tables for clinical studies, 2nd edn. Blackwell Science, Oxford

Manolio TA, Kronmal RA, Burke GL, Poirier V, O’Leary DH, Gardin JM, Fried LP, Steinberg EP, Bryan RN, for the Cardiovascular Health Study Collaborative Research Group (1994) Magnetic resonance abnormalities and cardiovascular disease in older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study. Stroke 25:318–327

Montero-Odasso M, Schapira M, Varela C, Pitteri C, Soriano ER, Kaplan R, Camera LA, Mayorga LM (2004) Gait velocity in senior people. An easy test for detecting mobility impairment in community elderly. J Nutr Health Aging 8:340–343PubMed

Montero-Odasso M, Schapira M, Soriano ER, Varela M, Kaplan R, Camera LA, Mayorga LM (2005) Gait velocity as a single predictor of adverse events in healthy seniors aged 75 years and older. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 60:1304–1309PubMedCrossRef

Montero-Odasso M, Casas A, Hansen KT, Bilski P, Gutmanis I, Wells JL, Borrie MJ (2009) Quantitative gait analysis under dual-task in older people with mild cognitive impairment: a reliability study. J Neuroeng Rehabil 6:35PubMedCrossRef

Montero-Odasso M, Muir SW, Speechley M (2012) Dual-task complexity affects gait in people with mild cognitive impairment: the interplay between gait variability, dual tasking, and risk of falls. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 93:293–299PubMedCrossRef

Nasreddine ZS, Phillips NA, Bédirian V, Charbonneau S, Whitehead V, Collin I, Cummings JL, Chertkow H (2005) The Montreal Cognitive Assessment, MoCA: a brief screening tool for mild cognitive impairment. J Am Geriatr Soc 53:695–699PubMedCrossRef

Nestor SM, Rupsingh R, Borrie M, Smith M, Accomazzi V, Wells JL, Fogarty J, Bartha R, Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (2008) Ventricular enlargement as a possible measure of Alzheimer’s disease progression validated using the Alzheimer’s disease neuroimaging initiative database. Brain 131:2443–2454

Perera S, Mody SH, Woodman RC, Studenski SA (2006) Meaningful change and responsiveness in common physical performance measures in older adults. J Am Geriatr Soc 54:743–749PubMedCrossRef

Rosano C, Kuller LH, Chung H, Arnold AM, Longstreth WT Jr, Newman AB (2005a) Subclinical brain magnetic resonance imaging abnormalities predict physical functional decline in high-functioning older adults. J Am Geriatr Soc 53:649–654PubMedCrossRef

Rosano C, Simonsick EM, Harris TB, Kritchevsky SB, Brach J, Visser M, Yaffe K, Newman AB (2005b) Association between physical and cognitive function in healthy elderly: the Health, Aging and Body Composition study. Neuroepidemiology 24:8–14PubMedCrossRef

Rosano C, Brach J, Longstreth WT Jr, Newman AB (2006) Quantitative measures of gait characteristics indicate prevalence of underlying subclinical structural brain abnormalities in high-functioning older adults. Neuroepidemiology 26:52–60PubMedCrossRef

Rosano C, Aizenstein H, Brach J, Longenberger A, Studenski S, Newman AB (2008) Special article: gait measures indicate underlying focal gray matter atrophy in the brain of older adults. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 63:1380–1388PubMedCrossRef

Sacco K, Cauda F, Cerliani L, Mate D, Duca S, Geminiani GC (2006) Motor imagery of walking following training in locomotor attention. The effet of “the tango lesson”. Neuroimage 32:1441–1449PubMedCrossRef

Schott JM, Bartlett JW, Barnes J, Leung KK, Ourselin S, Fox NC, Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative investigators (2010) Reduced sample sizes for atrophy outcomes in Alzheimer’s disease trials: baseline adjustment. Neurobiol Aging 31:1452–1462

Smith CD, Snowdon D, Markesbery WR (2000) Periventricular white matter hyperintensities on MRI: correlation with neuropathological findings. J Neuroimaging 10:13–16PubMed

Studenski S, Perera S, Wallace D, Chandler JM, Duncan PW, Rooney E, Fox M, Guralnik JM (2003) Physical performance measures in the clinical setting. J Am Geriatr Soc 51:314–322PubMedCrossRef

Takata Y, Ansai T, Soh I, Kimura Y, Yoshitake Y, Sonoki K, Awano S, Kagiyama S, Yoshida A, Nakamichi I, Hamasaki T, Torisu T, Toyoshima K, Takehara T (2008) Physical fitness and cognitive function in an 85-year-old community-dwelling population. Gerontology 54:354–360PubMedCrossRef

Turner B, Ramli N, Blumhardt LD, Jaspan T (2001) Ventricular enlargement in multiple sclerosis: a comparison of three-dimensional and linear MRI estimates. Neuroradiology 43:608–614PubMedCrossRef

Verghese J, Lipton RB, Hall CB, Kuslansky G, Katz MJ, Buschke H (2002) Abnormality of gait as a predictor of non-Alzheimer’s dementia. N Engl J Med 347:1761–1768PubMedCrossRef

Verghese J, Wang C, Lipton RB, Holtzer R, Xue X (2007) Quantitative gait dysfunction and risk of cognitive decline and dementia. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 78:929–935PubMedCrossRef

Waite LM, Grayson DA, Piguet O, Creasey H, Bennett HP, Broe GA (2005) Gait slowing as a predictor of incident dementia: 6-year longitudinal data from the Sydney Older Persons Study. J Neurol Sci 229–230:89–93PubMedCrossRef

Yogev-Seligmann G, Hausdorff JM, Giladi N (2008) The role of executive function and attention in gait. Mov Disord 23:329–342PubMedCrossRef

Zimmerman ME, Lipton RB, Pan JW, Hetherington HP, Verghese J (2009) MRI- and MRS-derived hippocampal correlates of quantitative locomotor function in older adults. Brain Res 1291:73–81PubMedCrossRef

Title: Slow gait in MCI is associated with ventricular enlargement: results from the Gait and Brain Study
Authors: C. Annweiler
O. Beauchet
R. Bartha
M. Montero-Odasso
Publication date: 01-07-2013
Publisher: Springer Vienna
Published in: Journal of Neural Transmission / Issue 7/2013
Print ISSN: 0300-9564
Electronic ISSN: 1435-1463
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-012-0926-4

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

Slow gait in MCI is associated with ventricular enlargement: results from the Gait and Brain Study

Abstract

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Please log in to get access to this content

Other articles of this Issue 7/2013

Theta responses are abnormal in mild cognitive impairment: evidence from analysis of theta event-related synchronization during a temporal expectancy task

Adrenergic neurotransmitter system transporter and receptor genes associated with atomoxetine response in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder children

Amphiphysin I but not dynamin I nor synaptojanin mRNA expression increased after repeated methamphetamine administration in the rat cerebrum and cerebellum

Organic bases of late-life depression: a critical update

Impact of subcortical white matter lesions on dopamine transporter SPECT

Abstracts of the Second International Congress on Treatment of Dystonia together with the First International Congress on Rehabilitation of Dystonia May 8–11, 2013 Hannover, Germany