Development and Validation of PARCOMS Composite Scales for Assessing Disease Progression and Treatment Effects in...

Measures designed to comprehensively assess Parkinson's disease (PD) irrespective of disease stage and treatment status may be unable to capture nuances in disease progression, particularly in early-stage PD. The objective of this paper is to develop PARkinson's COMposite Scales (PARCOMS) with increased responsiveness to clinical decline using items of the Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) for three discrete cohorts of patients.

Patients with confirmed PD from the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) data were assigned to three cohorts based on use of dopaminergic treatment, stage of disease, and presence of motor complication. For each cohort, items from MDS-UPDRS Part I (PARCOMS-Non-Motor) and Parts II and III (PARCOMS-Motor) were selected based on responsiveness using partial least squares (PLS) regression. The responsiveness of the scales was estimated using mean-to-standard deviation ratios (MSDRs) of their change values.

Compared to the original MDS-UPDRS, MSDRs for PARCOMS-Motor increased 13.1% (untreated cohort, n = 430), 78.2% (treated-without-motor-complications cohort, n = 426), and 100.6% (treated-with-motor-complications cohort, n = 538). The MSDR increases observed for PARCOMS-Non-Motor were 13.9%, 6.8%, and 20.7%, respectively. Across cohorts, turning in bed and speech items were large contributors to the PARCOMS-Motor scales. Items for cognitive impairment and urinary problems were substantial contributors to PARCOMS-Non-Motor across cohorts. There was variability in the weighting of items representing different clinical concepts across cohorts for each composite, confirming heterogeneity in disease progression across disease stages.

PD stage-specific composite measures were developed and demonstrated greater sensitivity to change than the original MDS-UPDRS, supporting the value of weighted composites tailored for disease stage.