Cognitive profiles of performance in Parkinson's Disease: results of a preliminary study (P2.183)

OBJECTIVE: To describe the cognitive performance in a patient sample fulfilling the diagnostic criteria for idiopathic Parkinson9s disease (PD) and an elderly control group without cognitive impairment (CG). BACKGROUND: Two groups of signs of cognitive performance are currently described in PD: 1) fronto-subcortical profile (FS-P) (characterized by impaired executive functions), 2) posterior-temporal profile (PT-P) (as an expression of temporal lobe pathology). The presence of cognitive impairment associated with PT-P may be a marker of dementia in PD. DESIGN/METHODS: We studied 18 PD patients and 28 CG patients by representative randomized selection. An experienced neurologist conducted the neurological examination of all participants and established UPDRS-S and Hoehn & Yahr scale scores of PD patients. A neuropsychologist assessed cognitive performance of PD and CG participants. Both investigators were blind for this process. Cognitive assessment items were divided as either 1) FS-P: working memory (WM), phonemic (PF), alternating (AF) and action fluencies or 2) PT-P: picture naming (PN), semantic fluency (SF). Statistics analyses were based on ANOVA and Multidimensional Scaling (MDS). RESULTS: PD showed general decreased performance in all tasks compared to CG. The MDS in PD group indicates two dimensions (Stress 0.005). In Dimension 1 the proximity between PF, AF, and WM tasks would suggest a profile. Naming and SF tasks show proximity by Dimension 2 MDS. We propose Dimension 1 tasks would suggest the FS-P and the tasks belonging to Dimension 2 the PT-P. Decreased performance of both profiles correlated with time of evolution and severity of Parkinson´s disease by Hoehn & Yahr and UPDR-S score scales in PD (p=0.03). CONCLUSIONS: Performance on FS-P and PT-P cognitive tasks appeared to be differentiated in PD patients. Further analysis in a cohort study may allow us to know whether lower scores in tasks of PT-P might eventually progress to dementia. Study Supported by: Disclosure: Dr. Giannaula has received personal compensation for activities with Boehringer Ingelheim. Dr. Sanz has nothing to disclose. Dr. Rodriguez Cerasuolo has nothing to disclose. Dr. Alfonso has nothing to disclose. Dr. Pagano Ajolfi has nothing to disclose. Dr. Maiques has nothing to disclose. Dr. Grasso has nothing to disclose.