Objective: We sought to determine: a) the ability of TYM to discriminate between PD patients with and without cognitive deficits b) equivalence between MoCA scores and TYM and c) inter-rater reliability in TYM testing.

Background: MoCA is widely used in Parkinson’s disease (PD) to assess cognition. The Test Your Memory (TYM) test is a cognitive screening tool validated in Alzheimer’s disease that offers the advantage of being usually self-administered and delivered by a non-specialist.

Methods: Patients recruited to a phase II medicinal-product trial in PD underwent MoCA and TYM assessments. Cognitive impairment was determined by MoCA score and we assessed the discriminant ability of TYM. We derived the equivalence between TYM and MoCA scores and measured the inter-rater reliability between three raters with different clinical expertise.

Results: 135 subjects completed both TYM and MoCA with 55% having cognitive deficits according to MoCA score (<26). Neither MoCA nor TYM scores showed significant floor or ceiling effects. A MoCA score of 25 was equivalent to a TYM score of 43. The area under the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve for TYM to differentiate between PD-normal and PD-cognitive impairment was 0.82 (95% CI 0.75 to 0.89). The optimal cut-off to distinguish PD-cognitive impairment was <45 (sensitivity 90.5%, specificity 59%). Inter-rater agreement was high (0.97) and TYM was completed in under 7 minutes (interquartile range 5.33 to 8.52 minutes).

Conclusions: The TYM test is a useful and less resource intensive screening test for cognitive deficits in PD.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/comparison-of-test-your-memory-tym-and-montreal-cognitive-assessment-moca-measures-in-parkinsons-disease/