Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25848239›Full record

ArticleClinical interventions in aging2015

Cognitive fluctuations in connection to dysgraphia: a comparison of Alzheimer's disease with dementia Lewy bodies.

Emanuela Onofri, Marco Mercuri, Giuseppe Donato, Serafino Ricci

Open access · goldAbstract readComparative Study
In one paragraph

Article in Clinical interventions in aging, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
0.7field-weighted citation impact, top 31% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 9 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Handwritten signatures in neurological and psychiatric disorders: a systematic review with clinical and forensic implications.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2026
    Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Cognitive Fluctuations and Cognitive Test Performance Among Institutionalized Persons With Dementia.American journal of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias · 2017
    Article
  5. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Emanuela OnofriDepartment of Anatomy, Histology, Legal Medicine and Orthopaedics, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Marco MercuriDepartment of Anatomy, Histology, Legal Medicine and Orthopaedics, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Giuseppe DonatoDepartment of Anatomy, Histology, Legal Medicine and Orthopaedics, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Serafino RicciDepartment of Anatomy, Histology, Legal Medicine and Orthopaedics, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Sapienza University of Rome · IT

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThe purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between cognitive impairment and the performance of handwritten scripts presented as "letter-writing" to a close relative by patients with dementia Lewy bodies (DLB), as fluctuations of the symptoms phase, and in a matched group of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). The degree of writing disability and personal, spatial, and temporal orientation was compared in these two groups. DESIGN AND

methodsFourteen simple questions, designed in a form that could be utilized by any general practitioner in order to document the level of cognitive functioning of each patient, were presented to 30 AD patients and 26 DLB patients. The initial cognition test was designated PQ1. The patients were examined on tests of letter-writing ability. Directly after the letter-writing, the list of 14 questions presented in PQ1 was presented again in a repeated procedure that was designated PQ2. The difference between these two measures (PQ1 - PQ2) was designated DΔ. This test of letter-writing ability and cognitive performance was administered over 19 days.

resultsSeveral markedly strong relationships between dysgraphia and several measures of cognitive performance in AD patients and DLB patients were observed, but the deterioration of performance from PQ1 to PQ2 over all test days were markedly significant in AD patients and not significant in DLB patients. It is possible that in graphic expression even by patients diagnosed with moderate to relatively severe AD and DLB there remains some residual capacity for understanding and intention that may be expressed. Furthermore, the deterioration in performance and the differences noted in AD and DLB patients may be due to the different speed at which the process of the protein degradation occurs for functional modification of synapses.

conclusionOur method can be used as part of neuropsychological tests to differentiate the diagnosis between AD and DLB.

Indexed as

AgedAged, 80 and overAgraphiaAlzheimer DiseaseCognitionFemaleHumansLewy Body DiseaseMaleNeuropsychological Testscognitioncorrelationdeficitsdeterioration

Identifiers

PMID25848239
PMCPMC4381903
OpenAlexW2083088299

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.