Postural balance in Alzheimer's disease patients undergoing sensory pitfalls

Brunna Berton,Evandro Gonzales Tarnhovi,Vinícius Santos Sanches,Andressa Cê,Gustavo Christofoletti,Fausto Orsi Medola

doi:10.1590/s1980-6574201600030012

Abstract

Despite consensus regarding the interference of cognitive processes on the human balance, the impact that different sensory stimuli have on the stabilometric measures remains unclear. Here, we investigated changes in the postural balance of individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and in healthy controls undergoing different proprioceptive and somesthetic pitfalls. We included 17 subjects submitted to eight sensorimotor dynamics with differences in the support bases, contact surfaces, and visual clues. The measurements used to assess participants balance were as follows: position of the body in space, range of instability, area of the support base, and velocity of postural control. From a total of 56 cross-sectional analyses, 21.42% pointed out differences between groups. Longitudinal analyses showed that tasks with proprioceptive and somesthetic pitfalls similarly impact imbalance in both groups. The current results suggest that AD subjects and healthy controls had different patterns submitted to balance, but suffered similar interference when undergoing proprioceptive and somesthetic challenges.

Highlights

The age advance constitutes a real challenge to governments and health care institutions in keeping the subjects healthy and with a proper quality of life[1]
The results partially corroborated our original hypothesis. Both groups presented greater balance instability during greater perturbation of the sensory systems; we expected that the Alzheimer’s disease (AD) group would have a higher imbalance than the control group
AD subjects have different pattern of postural control when compared with healthy participants

Summary

Introduction

The age advance constitutes a real challenge to governments and health care institutions in keeping the subjects healthy and with a proper quality of life[1]. Besides the presence of several age-related changes that hinder the daily living activities, older adults have to deal with complications caused by chronic diseases, increased risk of falls, and other disabling injuries[1,2]. Several factors contribute to an increased risk of falls in the elderly: reduced physical activity, loss of muscle strength, fear of falling, worst visual acuity, impaired mobility, weaker proprioceptive response, and decreased agility[4,5]. It is the association with chronic illness, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), that makes imbalance so common and highly disturbing in advanced aging[5,6]. The hallmark of AD is a progressive cognitive dysfunction; the symptoms begin with a gradual worsening of the ability to remember new information, followed by difficulties in solving problems, confusion with time or place, problems in understanding spatial relationships, and misplacing things[7]

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion