Parkinson: MCI Test May Hint at Prognosis

Three testing patterns observed among patients with Parkinson disease-associated mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) who complete the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) may have future implications for the severity of their condition, according to a new study.

With these findings in mind, the authors of the study call for further research “to determine if these patterns of responses are predictive of a benign or pathological prognosis.”
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The researchers arrived at this conclusion after a study of 557 MoCAs completed by 213 patients with PD-MCI. After further analysis, they found that these 3 patterns could explain 81% of the variance in MoCA responses.

The first MoCA pattern loaded positively on the number of words in 1 minute and language total score, loaded negatively with Visuospatial total, and was affected by the rate of disease progression.

The second pattern was found to load positively on the number of words in 1 minute and negatively on Visuospatial total score and Delayed Recall, and was influenced by gender.

However, the third pattern was found to load positively on total attention score, number of words in 1 minute, and serial 7’s. It loaded negatively on Visuospatial total score and was influenced by years of education.

“Scores on some components of the MoCA differed from the mean scores across multiple patterns, particularly Visuospatial/Executive total score and the number of words in 1 minute,” the researchers wrote. “These patterns are influenced by different demographic patterns.”

Findings from the study were presented on April 22 at the 2018 American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, California.

—Christina Vogt

Reference:

Mackenzie M, Sundvick K, Cai J, et al. Patterns of responses on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment in Parkinson disease associated mild cognitive impairment. Paper presented at: 2018 American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting; April 21-27, 2018. Los Angeles, CA. https://submissions.mirasmart.com/AAN2018/itinerary/SearchResultsProgram.asp