RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The MoCA
JF Neurology
JO Neurology
FD Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
SP 1717
OP 1725
DO 10.1212/WNL.0b013e3181fc29c9
VO 75
IS 19
A1 Dalrymple-Alford, J.C.
A1 MacAskill, M.R.
A1 Nakas, C.T.
A1 Livingston, L.
A1 Graham, C.
A1 Crucian, G.P.
A1 Melzer, T.R.
A1 Kirwan, J.
A1 Keenan, R.
A1 Wells, S.
A1 Porter, R.J.
A1 Watts, R.
A1 Anderson, T.J.
YR 2010
UL http://n.neurology.org/content/75/19/1717.abstract
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.