Primary Perception About Applying The Test PANDA In Patients With Parkinson's Disease In Chongqing China

Objective: To explore initially some easy-to-use neuropsychological tests, which are suitable for screening mild cognitive dysfunction in the early stage of parkinson's disease. Then to expect finding some one which could screen out questionable patients with mild cognitive impairment in parkinson's disease(PD-MCI).Method: A consecutive fifty PD patients were documented in detail about demographics including age, gender and marital status, diagnostic status including age of PD onset, duration of disease, cardinal symptom, physical signs, the Hoehn & Yahr scale, and the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale(UPDRS). Cognitive status was assessed with the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale(CDR), Global Deterioate Scale(GDS), the Mini-Mental State Exam(MMSE) and the Parkinson neuropsychometric dementia assessment(PANDA). The advantages and disadvantage about the latter two tests would be compared.Results: Twenty-seven patients(54%) were defined as PD-MCI by the PANDA, while there was only eleven one by the MMSE(22%). The distinction bears significance in statistics(X2 4.393, P 0.036). Spearman correlation coefficient analysis reveals the score of PANDA correlated with UPDRS and Hoehn&Yahr (Spearman correlation coefficients -0.503, P<0.05 VS. -0.501, P<0.05 respectively).Conclusion: Comparing to the MMSE, the PANDA provides considerably more insight into the cognitive impairment of patients with PD in the early stage of the disease. The PANDA would be a better choice than the widely used MMSE as a cognitive screening instrument in PD patients. We can use the PANDA to screening PD-MCI in clinical practice and research.