Subcortical vascular lesions and functional recovery in older patients with gait disorders Fabio Guerini a , Giovanni Battista Frisoni b , Giuseppe Bellelli a, * , Marco Trabucchi c a Rehabilitation and Aged Care Unit ‘‘Ancelle della Carita’’ Hospital, Via Aselli, 14 I-26100 Cremona, Italy b LENITEM-Laboratory of Epidemiology Neuroimaging and Telemedicine, IRCCS San Giovanni di Dio FBF, Via Pilastroni, 14 I-25100 Brescia, Italy c Geriatric Research Group, Via Romanino, 1 I-25100 Brescia, Italy Received 31 January 2006; received in revised form 30 September 2006; accepted 2 October 2006 Available online 27 November 2006 Abstract This study aimed to assess whether subcortical vascular lesions (SVLs) predict functional recovery after rehabilitation in elderly patients with gait disorders (GD) due to multiple etiology (GD-ME). All patients consecutively admitted with GD-ME (n = 103) in our Rehabilitation and Aged Care Unit (RACU) underwent a standardized rehabilitative program. The outcome measure was the Barthel Index (BI) Relative Functional Gain (RFG), a measure of improvement adjusting for baseline functional level. Potential predictors included cognition, depression, functional and nutritional status, physical health, occurrence of adverse clinical events during hospital stay, and SVLs, assessed with a validated visual rating scale based on brain CT scans. Predictors were divided into quartiles and the association with RFG was assessed. In a multivariate linear regression model, SVLs maintained its predictive power on RFG after adjustment for age, gender, and adverse clinical events, which was the only variable associated to RFG in the bivariate model (adjusted p = 0.002 for trend). The study shows that SVLs is a predictor of functional recovery in elderly patients with GD-ME. # 2006 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: SVLs; GD in elderly; Functional recovery www.elsevier.com/locate/archger Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics 45 (2007) 87–96 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 0372 5357 11; fax: +39 0372 5357700. E-mail address: bellelli-giuseppe@ancelle.it (G. Bellelli). 0167-4943/$ – see front matter # 2006 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.archger.2006.10.002