Journal
JOURNALS OF GERONTOLOGY SERIES A-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
Volume 67, Issue 9, Pages 957-962Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glr262
Keywords
Bradykinesia; Gait disturbances; Brain MRI
Categories
Funding
- National Institute on Aging (NIA) [N01-AG-6-2101, N01-AG-6-2103, N01-AG-6-2106]
- NIA [R01-AG028050]
- National Institute of Nursing Research [R01-NR012459, R01 MH076079, P30 AG024827-06 1, R01 AG029232-01]
- Intramural Research Program of the NIH, National Institute on Aging
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Identify the neuroimaging correlates of parkinsonian signs in older adults living in the community. Magnetic resonance imaging was obtained in 307 adults (82.9 years, 55% women, 39% blacks) concurrently with the Unified Parkinson Disease Rating scale-motor part. Magnetic resonance imaging measures included volume of whole-brain white matter hyperintensities and of gray matter for primary sensorimotor, supplementary motor, medial temporal areas, cerebellum, prefronto-parietal cortex, and basal ganglia. About 25% of the participants had bradykinesia, 26% had gait disturbances, and 12% had tremor. Compared with those without, adults with any one of these signs were older, walked more slowly, had worse scores on tests of cognition, mood and processing speed, and higher white matter hyperintensities volume (all p < .002). Gray matter volume of primary sensorimotor area was associated with bradykinesia (standardized odds ratio [95% confidence interval]: 0.46 [0.31, 0.68], p < .0001), and gray matter volume of medial temporal area was associated with gait disturbances (0.56 [0.42, 0.83], p < .0001), independent of white matter hyperintensities volume and age. Further adjustment for measures of muscle strength, cardiovascular health factors, cognition, processing speed, and mood or for gait speed did not substantially change these results. Atrophy within primary sensorimotor and medial temporal areas might be important for development of bradykinesia and of gait disturbances in community-dwelling elderly adults. The pathways underlying these associations may not include changes in white matter hyperintensities volume, cognition, information processing speed, mood, or gait speed.
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