PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Dalrymple-Alford, J.C.
AU  - MacAskill, M.R.
AU  - Nakas, C.T.
AU  - Livingston, L.
AU  - Graham, C.
AU  - Crucian, G.P.
AU  - Melzer, T.R.
AU  - Kirwan, J.
AU  - Keenan, R.
AU  - Wells, S.
AU  - Porter, R.J.
AU  - Watts, R.
AU  - Anderson, T.J.
TI  - The MoCA
AID  - 10.1212/WNL.0b013e3181fc29c9
DP  - 2010 Nov 09
TA  - Neurology
PG  - 1717--1725
VI  - 75
IP  - 19
4099  - http://n.neurology.org/content/75/19/1717.short
4100  - http://n.neurology.org/content/75/19/1717.full
SO  - Neurology2010 Nov 09; 75
AB  - Objective: To establish the diagnostic accuracy of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) when screening externally validated cognition in Parkinson disease (PD), by comparison with a PD-focused test (Scales for Outcomes in Parkinson disease–Cognition [SCOPA-COG]) and the standardized Mini-Mental State Examination (S-MMSE) as benchmarks. Methods: A convenience sample of 114 patients with idiopathic PD and 47 healthy controls was examined in a movement disorders center. The 21 patients with dementia (PD-D) were diagnosed using Movement Disorders Society criteria, externally validated by detailed independent functional and neuropsychological tests. The 21 patients with mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) scored 1.5 SD or more below normative data in at least 2 measures in 1 of 4 cognitive domains. Other patients had normal cognition (PD-N). Results: Primary outcomes using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses showed that all 3 mental status tests produced excellent discrimination of PD-D from patients without dementia (area under the curve [AUC], 87%–91%) and PD-MCI from PD-N patients (AUC, 78%–90%), but the MoCA was generally better suited across both assessments. The optimal MoCA screening cutoffs were <21/30 for PD-D (sensitivity 81%; specificity 95%; negative predictive value [NPV] 92%) and <26/30 for PD-MCI (sensitivity 90%; specificity 75%; NPV 95%). Further support that the MoCA is at least equivalent to the SCOPA-COG, and superior to the S-MMSE, came from the simultaneous classification of the 3 PD patient groups (volumes under a 3-dimensional ROC surface, chance = 17%: MoCA 79%, confidence interval [CI] 70%–89%; SCOPA-COG 74%, CI 62%–86%; MMSE-Sevens item 56%, CI 44%–68%; MMSE-World item 62%, CI 50%–73%). Conclusions: The MoCA is a suitably accurate, brief test when screening all levels of cognition in PD.