Progression of motor and cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease.
We performed a longitudinal study (mean follow-up 86.7 months) to evaluate motor and mental deterioration in patients with Parkinson's disease. Of the original 91 patients, only 61 could be re-examined 7 years later and 11 of these had become demented (PD-Dems). PD-Dems were older with worse motor and, obviously, cognitive performance than non-demented parkinsonian patients (PDs). A global cognitive decay index (DI) was calculated for each patient. Based on this, non-demented PDs were further split into 38 stable parkinsonian patients (S-PDs) with DI-30% to +30%, and 10 deteriorated but non-demented parkinsonian patients (D-PDs) with a DI worse than -30% (as had PD-Dems). D-PDs were older and had greater motor impairment than S-PDs but did not differ from PD-Dems on these measures. D-PDs and PD-Dems deteriorated especially in attention, visuospatial and executive ability tests. Ageing seems to be the main predictive factor for mental deterioration.
Istituto Nazionale Neurologico C. Besta, Milan, Italy.
E
E
Palazzini
P
P
Soliveri
G
G
Filippini
V
V
Fetoni
B
B
Zappacosta
G
G
Scigliano
D
D
Monza
T
T
Caraceni
F
F
Girotti
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance