health of the nervous system

Apraxia in a nutshell

Scroll down the page to read the summary table on the apraxia.

Apraxia: definition	Clear difficulty or inability to perform voluntary movements: apraxia is a neuropsychological disorder directly related to movement deficits, both in terms of planning and motor programming
Apraxia: analysis of the term and meaning	Aprassia derives from the Greek a-praxìa : prefix a - indicates a denial suffix –praxìa means to do → literally non-doing, impossibility to do
Aphasia and general traits	Most apraxis patients are not aware of their deficits, they are normo-intelligent, they are not disabled, and both will and motor capacity remain unchanged
Apraxia: causes and clinical evidence	Cerebrovascular injury: thrombotic or embolic infarcts, long-term hemodialysis, stroke and brain tumors Possible worsening of apraxia following concomitant psychological illnesses Close correlation between Alzheimer's disease and neurodegenerative diseases Injuries to the corpus callosum 30% of patients with injuries to the left cerebral hemisphere also suffer from some form of apraxia
Apraxia: anatomical targets	Apraxia mainly affects the muscles of the arms, while those of the legs and face are only rarely affected; the apraxia of the trunk is debatable
Clinical aspect of apraxia (design errors)	Lack of some indispensable elements for the completion of a movement Bizarre realization of the gesture The patient continues to repeat that given gesture Temporal coordination Object = hand Replacing one movement with another wrong
Aphasia and movement disorders	Apraxia is intended as a disorder of its own, associated with other movement disorders, but not directly related
General classification of apraxia	Classification based on the areas affected: apraxia of the limbs, oral and trunk Classification of forms of apraxia according to the degree of processing of the motor gesture
Ideomotor apraxia	The patient is unable to translate the gesture conceived into movement
Ideational (or ideational) apraxia	Impossibility to execute movements in the right temporal succession
Constructive apraxia	Impossibility to reproduce bi / three dimensional configurations, both on imitation and on memory
Buccofacial apraxia	Inability to perform indicative movements with mouth, pharynx or neck muscles, even under imitative stimulation
Apraxia of the trunk	Inability of the patient to coordinate the movements of the trunk and to execute them correctly for a purpose
Other forms of apraxia	Verbal apraxia Motor apraxia Acrocinetic apraxia
Element that unites all forms of apraxia	Apraxia is not simply related to movement as such, rather it affects the organization, design and coordination of gestures and movements
Apraxia: diagnosis	Interpretative models based essentially on cognitive examinations Demonstration of the use of objects Observation of the muscles used to perform an action Magnetic resonance and computed tomography Differential diagnosis between apraxia and aphasia, deafness, dementia, blindness, psychological disorders etc.
Apraxia: therapies	Patient rehabilitation: substitute and restorative approach Lack of a specific and exclusive drug therapy Quantity of rehabilitation studies carried out for the rather small apraxia
Apraxia: prognosis	In general, apraxia is one of the debilitating neuropathological pathologies Some forms of apraxia tend to resolve spontaneously (eg ideomotor apraxia) Many aprasic symptoms get worse as the patient advances with age