Mild cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease versus Alzheimer's disease

Lilah M. Besser*, Irene Litvan, Sarah E. Monsell, Charles Mock, Sandra Weintraub, Xiao Hua Zhou, Walter Kukull

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

Introduction No known studies have compared longitudinal characteristics between individuals with incident mild cognitive impairment due to Parkinson's disease (PD-MCI) versus Alzheimer's Disease (AD-MCI). Methods We used longitudinal data from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center's Uniform Data Set to compare 41 PD-MCI and 191 AD-MCI participants according to their demographics, presence of ≥1 APOE e4 allele, and baseline and change over time in clinical characteristics, neuropsychological test scores, and Clinical Dementia Rating sum of boxes (CDR-SB). Multivariable linear regression models with generalized estimating equations were used to account for clustered data and to test for baseline and longitudinal differences in neuropsychological test scores. Results PD-MCI and AD-MCI participants differed by many demographic and clinical characteristics. Significantly fewer PD-MCI participants developed dementia over one year. Compared to AD-MCI participants, PD-MCI participants performed better at baseline and over time on a global measure of cognition (Mini Mental State Exam), memory measures (immediate and delayed Logical Memory), and a language measure (Boston Naming Test), and additionally performed better over time on an attention measure (Digit Span Forward), a language measure (Vegetable List), a processing speed measure (Digit Symbol), and an overall measure of memory and functional impairment (CDR-SB). Conclusion Our study provides further evidence that PD-MCI is clinically distinct from AD-MCI and requires different tools for diagnosis and monitoring clinical progression. More importantly, this study suggests that PD-MCI takes longer to convert into dementia than AD-MCI, findings that require replication by other studies.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)54-60
Number of pages7
JournalParkinsonism and Related Disorders
Volume27
DOIs
StatePublished - 2016

Funding

Sandra Weintraub has research support from grant AG13854 ( Alzheimer Disease Center ) from the National Institute on Aging and grant DC008552 from the National Institute on Deafness and Communication Disorders. The NACC database is funded by NIA / NIH Grant U01 AG016976 . NACC data are contributed by the NIA-funded ADCs (listed individually in the Supplement). The authors thankfully acknowledge the patients and families enrolled at the ADCs who contributed data to the UDS and the faculty and staff of the ADCs who conducted the evaluations and collected the data used in these analyses. The authors would also like to thank the NIA, which provided support for the ADCs and NACC, as well as NACC staff (Duane Beekly, George Thomas, Mark Bollenbeck, Janene Hubbard, Mary Jacka, Joylee Wu, Elizabeth Robichaud, Nicole Barlow, Merilee Teylan, Simone Wilk, and Margaret Dean), without whom this research would not be possible. Irene Litvan was member of the Advisory Board or consultant for Pfizer, TEVA, MERZ, Northera, Bristol-Myers Squibb and UCB. Her research is funded by the National Institutes of Health 5P50 AG005131-31 , 5T35HL007491 , 1U01NS086659 , 1U54NS092089-01 , Parkinson Study Group, Michael J Fox Foundation, CBD Solutions-CurePSP, Teva Pharmaceuticals and AVID Pharmaceuticals.

Keywords

  • Alzheimer's disease
  • Clinical progression
  • Mild cognitive impairment
  • Neuropsychological assessment
  • Parkinson's disease

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geriatrics and Gerontology
  • Clinical Neurology
  • Neurology

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