This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.
Abstract
Objective: To learn if ideomotor apraxia (IMA) adversely influences skilled acts in the environment and interferes with independent functioning after stroke.
Methods: The relationship between IMA severity, based on scores from a verbal gesture-to-command (pantomime) task, and the dependency score, as defined by increased caregiver assistance on the Physical Self-Maintenance Scale (PSMS), was investigated in 10 unilateral left hemisphere–damaged stroke patients and 10 matched control subjects.
Results: There was a significant relationship between apraxia severity and dependency in physical functioning (PSMS). Impairment on the PSMS in the patients with IMA could not be accounted for based on overall cognitive impairment, poststroke depression, content–conceptual errors, elementary motor impairment, lesion size, or stroke–test interval. Analysis of categories composing the PSMS revealed that the patients with apraxia had increased dependency in grooming, bathing, and toileting relative to age-matched control subjects.
Conclusions: These findings emphasize the ecological implications of apraxia and the need for rehabilitation strategies to improve the execution and efficiency of coordinated skilled movements in stroke patients with left hemisphere damage.
- Received February 26, 2002.
- Accepted in final form October 11, 2002.
AAN Members
We have changed the login procedure to improve access between AAN.com and the Neurology journals. If you are experiencing issues, please log out of AAN.com and clear history and cookies. (For instructions by browser, please click the instruction pages below). After clearing, choose preferred Journal and select login for AAN Members. You will be redirected to a login page where you can log in with your AAN ID number and password. When you are returned to the Journal, your name should appear at the top right of the page.
AAN Non-Member Subscribers
Purchase access
Letters: Rapid online correspondence
REQUIREMENTS
You must ensure that your Disclosures have been updated within the previous six months. Please go to our Submission Site to add or update your Disclosure information.
Your co-authors must send a completed Publishing Agreement Form to Neurology Staff (not necessary for the lead/corresponding author as the form below will suffice) before you upload your comment.
If you are responding to a comment that was written about an article you originally authored:
You (and co-authors) do not need to fill out forms or check disclosures as author forms are still valid
and apply to letter.
Submission specifications:
- Submissions must be < 200 words with < 5 references. Reference 1 must be the article on which you are commenting.
- Submissions should not have more than 5 authors. (Exception: original author replies can include all original authors of the article)
- Submit only on articles published within 6 months of issue date.
- Do not be redundant. Read any comments already posted on the article prior to submission.
- Submitted comments are subject to editing and editor review prior to posting.
You May Also be Interested in
Hastening the Diagnosis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Dr. Brian Callaghan and Dr. Kellen Quigg