Application of Montreal cognitive assessment in screening cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease patients

Objective To study the application of Montreal cognitive assessment(MoCA) and minimental state examination(MMSE) in screening cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease(PD) patients.Methods One hundred and twenty-nine PD patients at the age≥60 years were divided into normal group,mild cognitive impairment(MCI)group and PD dementia(PDD)group according to their cognitive function.They were assessed and analyzed according to their MoCA and MMSE score.Results The MoCA score was significantly different in 3 groups(P0.01).The scores of drawing cube,retelling,counting animals in 1 min,similarity anddelayed recallwere lower in MCI and PDD groups than in normal group(P0.ODwhile the scores of naming,digit span andorientationwere higher in normal and MCI groups than in PDD group(P0.05).In addition,the area under ROC for the patients was 0.803 for the diagnosis of MCI according to MMSE,0.803 for the diagnosis of MCI according to MMSE,0.947 for the diagnosis of MCI according to MoCA,0.952 for the diagnosis of PDD according to MMSE and 0.990 for the diagnosis of PDD according to MoCA.Conclusion MoCA can be used as an effective tool for screening the cognitive impairment in PD patients.The MoCA score decreases gradually with the aggravation of PD.The MoCA optimal cutoff value is≤23 score for screening MCI in PD and the sensitivity of MoCA is higher than that of MMSE in screening PD patients.