Abstract
BackgroundAlthough significant response time deficits (both reaction time and movement time) have been identified in numerous studies of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), few attempts have been made to evaluate the use of these measures in screening for PD.MethodsReceiver operator characteristic curves were used to identify cutoff scores for a unit-weighted composite of two choice response tasks in a sample of 40 patients and 40 healthy participants. These scores were then cross-validated in an independent sample of 20 patients and 20 healthy participants.ResultsThe unit-weighted movement time composite demonstrated high sensitivity (90%) and specificity (90%) in the identification of PD. Movement time was also significantly correlated (r = 0.59, p < 0.025) with the motor score of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS).ConclusionsMeasures of chronometric speed, assessed without the use of biomechanically complex movements, have a potential role in screening for PD. Furthermore, the significant correlation between movement time and UPDRS motor score suggests that movement time may be useful in the quantification of PD severity.
Highlights
Significant response time deficits have been identified in numerous studies of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), few attempts have been made to evaluate the use of these measures in screening for PD
In the first sample (40 patients and 40 healthy participants), separate receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves were generated for the composite reaction time (RT) and movement time (MT) scores
The cutoff score was identified as the point on the curve that maximized sensitivity, with a specificity of at least 70%. This cutoff score was determined to be 230 ms
Summary
Significant response time deficits (both reaction time and movement time) have been identified in numerous studies of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), few attempts have been made to evaluate the use of these measures in screening for PD. The success of dopaminergic interventions in the treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD) symptoms has been significant. As new, and possibly neuroprotective, drugs become available for the treatment of PD, early and accurate diagnosis will become increasingly important. As the diagnosis of PD is usually based on subjective clinical assessment of overt symptomatology [1], the need for an objective and reproducible battery of diagnostic tests is great. What is truly needed is a low-cost objective test battery that might be used in situations where (a) movement (page number not for citation purposes)
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