Coherence of brain electrical activity: a quality of life indicator in Alzheimer's disease?

OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationships between quality of life (QOL) and clinical and electroencephalogram (EEG) aspects in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). METHOD Twenty-eight patients with mild or moderate AD, 31 with Parkinson's disease (PD), and 27 normal controls (NC) were submitted to: CERAD neuropsychological battery, Hamilton Depression and Anxiety Rating Scales, Functional Activities Questionnaire, QOL scale for patients with AD, and quantitative EEG measures. RESULTS AD and PD patients had similar QOL (31.0 ± 5.8; 31.7 ± 4.8, respectively), worse than that of NC (37.5 ± 6.3). AD patients had lower global interhemispheric theta coherence (0.49 ± 0.04; 0.52 ± 0.05; 0.52 ± 0.05; respectively) than PD and NC. Multiple linear regression for QOL of AD patients revealed that global interhemispheric theta coherence, and Hamilton depression scores were significant factors (coefficients; 58.2 and -0.27, respectively; R2, 0.377). CONCLUSION Interhemispheric coherence correlates with QOL regardless of cognitive and functional variables and seems to be a neurophysiological indicator of QOL in AD patients.