Relationship Between Cognitive Impairment and Parkinson Disease Dementia

Researchers conducted the first large international study to determine the predictive validity of the level II mild cognitive impairment criteria for Parkinson disease (PD), recently formulated by the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

According to the findings, there is a “clear and unique contribution of classification” with the level II criteria to the hazard of PD dementia and contribute important new information beyond the already-known factors.
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Researchers Jeroen Hoogland, MD, (Academic Medical Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands), and colleagues first selected patient data from four different studies on cognition in PD that contained information related to demographics, motor examination, depression, neuropsychological examination for application of level II criteria, and longitudinal follow-up for conversion to dementia. Survival analysis was used to evaluate the predictive value of the criteria for cognitive decline toward dementia.

Individual data from 467 patients were included. Upon analysis, authors saw a clear contribution of impairment according to level II mild cognitive impairment criteria, age, and severity of PD motor symptoms to the hazard of dementia. Researchers also noted a trend of “hazard of dementia with declining neuropsychological performance” (Movement Disorders. Published online June 12, 2017; doi:10.1002/mds.27002).

Authors said these findings support the predictive validity of the recently formulated criteria, beyond the known demographic and PD-specific factors of influence.—Amanda Del Signore