Emanuela Onofri, Marco Mercuri, MariaLucia Salesi, Max Rapp Ricciardi, Trevor Archer and Serafino Ricci
Introduction: Agraphia or dysgraphia, observed often in early AD, encompasses a progressive disorganization
and degeneration of the various components of handwriting.
Methods: Deficits in writing ability, dysgraphia, and the relationship with other measures of cognitive decline were
studied in a group of 30 patients, originating from the Lazio region, Rome, Italy, presenting a moderate to relatively
severe stage of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Extent of dysgraphia and cognitive performance was compared with a
matched group of healthy controls selected from the same region.
Results: Several markedly strong relationships between dysgraphia and several measures of cognitive
performance in AD patients were observed concomitant with consistent deficits by this patient sample in comparison
with the matched group of healthy control subjects were obtained. Additionally, several measures of loss of functional
integrity, MMSE, ADL and IADL, were found to be associated with both dysgraphia and impairments in cognitive
performance.
Conclusions: The present results are discussed from the notion of affected brain regions underlying functions
in cognition, language and motor domains that are disturbed in AD. Marked relationships between dysgraphia and
several measures of cognitive performance in AD patients were observed concomitant with consistent deficits by this
sample in comparison with a matched group of healthy control subjects.