Cognitive impairment in Chinese IIDDs revealed by MoCA and P300

To investigate the value of MoCA and auditory P300 as a cognitive assessment tool in chinese idiopathic inflammatory-demyelinating diseases (IIDDs), eighty three consecutive patients with IIDDs and thirteen sex- and age-matched healthy controls were recruited in the study. MMSE, MoCA and auditory P300 potential were administrated to each participant. The percentage of cognitive impairment in IIDDs patients was 24.1% by using MMSE, while the percentage was 81.9% by using MoCA. The majority of IIDDs participants had MMSE scores in the normal range. In contrast, few IIDDs participants scored in the normal range on the MoCA. Age, EDSS and depression correlated negatively with the total score of MoCA and MMSE. Years of education correlated positively with MoCA and MMSE. ADEM patients scored lower on all MoCA subtests. Prolonged latency P300 which negatively correlated with MoCA and reduced P300 amplitude which positively correlated with MoCA were detected in IIDDs patients. Thus MoCA is superior to the MMSE as a cognitive impairment scan tool and P300 is useful for detecting cogntive deficiency in chinese IIDDs.