Slow Walking Speed May Signal Alzheimer's Risk

Slow Walking Speed May Signal Alzheimer's Risk

Sue Hughes

December 03, 2015

source The Telegraph

edited by kcontents

A slow walking speed was associated with a higher level of brain amyloid deposits in a population of older adults at a high risk of developing dementia in a new study.

The study, published online in Neurology December 2, was conducted by a team led by Natalia del Campo, PhD, University Hospital Toulouse, France.

"Our results suggest that taking into account physical parameters that are not conventionally looked at in dementia, such as walking speed, may help optimize the early identification of individuals who are at risk of Alzheimer's," Dr del Campo commented to Medscape Medical News.

"However, more evidence is needed before our data can be translated into clinical practice," she added. "There are many other causes of slow walking in older adults."

Dr del Campo explained that previous epidemiologic studies have suggested a decline in gait speed in patients with mild cognitive impairment and in healthy adults who converted to mild cognitive impairment years later. It has also been reported that Alzheimer's disease pathology on postmortem examination is associated with decline in walking speed before death. However, the neural mechanisms underlying these observations were largely unexplored.

The researchers speculated that the mechanism behind such observations may be amyloid toxicity disrupting motor circuits. They therefore conducted the current study to examine the association between amyloid deposits and walking speed in elderly individuals with high risk for dementia.

The study involved 128 people (average age, 76 years) who did not have dementia but were considered at high risk because they had concerns about their memory. They underwent positron emission tomography (PET) to measure amyloid plaques in the brain, and 48% of the group was found to have a level of amyloid often associated with dementia.

Participants also underwent cognitive testing and 46% were found to have mild cognitive impairment. Gait speed was measured by timing participants while they walked 4 meters. All but two of the participants were in the normal range of walking speed.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/855360

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