Relationship between serum homocysteine level and cognitive impairment in patients with Parkinson's disease

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the correlation between serum homocysteine (Hcy) and cognitive impairment (CI) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Methods: Eighty-one PD patients were prospectively recruited in this study from Feb 2015 to Jan 2018 in Gansu Provincial Hospital. Of the subjects, 41 were diagnosed with cognitive impairment (PD-CI) vs. the 40 others without PD (PDN). The clinical characteristic and demographic features were recorded for the two groups. The serum Hcy, folate and vitamin B12 (VitB12) were examined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: The serum Hcy, folate, VitB12 concentration were 21.7±6.2 (μmol/L), 9.2±3.7 (ng/mL), 354.1±123.5 (pg/mL) for PD-CI group and 14.1±5.7 (μmol/L), 12.4±4.5 (ng/mL), 378.7±128.2 (pg/mL) for PDN group respectively. The serum level of Hcy in PD-CI group was significantly higher than that of PDN group (p<0.05), serum folate was significantly lower than PDN group (p<0.05). The diagnostic sensitivity, specificity and AUC were 77.5% (95%CI:61.6%-89.2%), 78.1% (95%CI:62.4%-89.4%), 0.82 (95%CI:0.73-0.91) for serum Hcy and 72.5% (95%CI:56.1%-85.4%), 63.4% (95%CI:46.9%-77.9%), 0.71(95%CI:0060-0.83) for serum folate respectively as serological markers for cognitive impairment diagnosis in patients with PD. Conclusion: Serum Hcy and folate were different between PD-CI and PDN patients, which may play an important role in cognitive impairment development in patients with PD and can be used as promising serological diagnostic marker.