New predictive tool may identify the risk of dementia within Parkinson’s

The Montreal Parkinson Risk of Dementia Scale (MoPaRDS), which comprises 8 simple clinical variables, is effective for predicting the risk for dementia in patients with Parkinson disease(PD), according to findings from a multicenter study published in JAMA Neurology.

Investigators recruited 717 patients with Parkinson disease, of whom 607 were free from dementia at baseline. Participants were derived from 4 cohorts consisting of patients from Japan, Canada, and other sites from the Parkinson Progression Markers Initiative.

Findings from a literature review and a 4.4-year prospective cohort study were used to develop the MoPaRDS, which comprises 8 items: age <70 years, male sex, falls and/or freezing, onset of bilateral disease, history of rapid eye movement disorder, orthostatic hypotension, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and visual hallucinations. Using the MoPaRDS as a scoring system, the investigators stratified participants into 3 groups based on risk: high (6-8), intermediate (4-5), or low (0-3). The investigators assessed the associations between baseline scale items with dementia risk to determine the predictive validity of the MoPaRDS.

Among the patients who were free from dementia, 70 (11.5%) converted to dementia during a mean follow-up of 4.4 years. Annual conversion rates to dementia in the high-, intermediate-, and low-risk groups were 14.9%, 5.8%, and 0.6%, respectively.