Rinsho Shinkeigaku (Clinical Neurology)

Case Report

A case of motor disturbance in upper limb by parietal lesion; Limb kinetic apraxia without visual compensation?

Akiko Hosomi, M.D.1), Kenji Yoshikawa, M.D.1), Kei Yamada, M.D.2) and Masanori Nakagawa, M.D.1)

Department of 1)Neurology and 2)Radiology, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine

We report a 75-year-old right-handed man who showed limbkinetic apraxia in the left hand caused by brain infarction of the right parietal lobe including postcentral gyrus. The hand shaping and posture preceding grasping was not appropriate, and clumsiness of the hand was not corrected by visual guidance. Fiber-tracking of the sensorimotor tract on diffusion tensor MRI and electrophysiological studies revealed that the lesion involved the area 1, 2, 5, and 7 of the cortices in Brodmann's nomenclature. In the most cases with limbkinetic apraxia caused by posterior lesion in the center region, hand clumsiness in manipulation should be corrected by visual guidance, which did not function in this case due to coexisting disturbances of kinesthesia with relatively large lesion in the parietal cortex.

(CLINICA NEUROL, 45: 411|415, 2005)
key words: limb-kinetic apraxia, fiber tracking, die centralregion, somatosensory evoked potential, preshaping

(Received: 7-Apr-03)