TY - JOUR
T1 - Premature cognitive decline in specific domains found in young veterans with mTBI coincide with elder normative scores and advanced-age subjects with early-stage Parkinson's disease
AU - Nejtek, Vicki A.
AU - James, Rachael N.
AU - Salvatore, Michael F.
AU - Alphonso, Helene M.
AU - Boehm, Gary W.
N1 - Funding Information:
VAN was the Principal Investigator funded, in part, by the Graham and Caroline Holloway Family Foundation, the JES Edwards Foundation under Grant # RP20007, and the Institute for Translational Research (formerly the Center for Alzheimer's and Neurodegenerative Disease Research) at UNT Health Science Center under Grant # RI10024. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Nejtek et al.
PY - 2021/11
Y1 - 2021/11
N2 - Importance: Epidemiologists report a 56% increased risk of veterans with (+) mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) developing Parkinson's disease (PD) within 12-years post-injury. The most relevant contributors to this high risk of PD in veterans (+) mTBI is unknown. As cognitive problems often precede PD diagnosis, identifying specific domains most involved with mTBI-related PD onset is critical. Objectives: To discern which cognitive domains underlie the mTBI-PD risk relationship proposed in epidemiology studies. Design and setting: This exploratory match-controlled, cross-sectional study was conducted in a medical school laboratory from 2017-2020. Participants: Age- and IQ-matched veterans with (+) and without mTBI, non-veteran healthy controls, and IQ-matched non-demented early-stage PD were compared. Chronic neurological, unremitted/ debilitating diseases, disorders, dementia, and substance use among others were excluded. Exposure: Veterans were or were not exposed to non-penetrating combat-related mTBI occurring within the past 7-years. No other groups had recent military service or mTBI. Main outcomes / measures: Cognitive flexibility, attention, memory, visuospatial ability, and verbal fluency were examined with well-known standardized neuropsychological assessments. Results: Out of 200 volunteers, 114 provided evaluable data. Groups significantly differed on cognitive tests [F (21,299) = 3.09, p<0.0001]. Post hoc tests showed veterans (+) mTBI performed significantly worse than matched-control groups on four out of eight cognitive tests (range: p = .009 to .049), and more often than not performed comparably to early-stage PD (range: p = .749 to .140). Conclusions and relevance: We found subtle, premature cognitive decline occurring in very specific cognitive domains in veterans (+) mTBI that would typically be overlooked in a clinic setting, This result potentially puts them at-risk for continual cognitive decline that may portend to the eventual onset of PD or some other neurodegenerative disease.
AB - Importance: Epidemiologists report a 56% increased risk of veterans with (+) mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) developing Parkinson's disease (PD) within 12-years post-injury. The most relevant contributors to this high risk of PD in veterans (+) mTBI is unknown. As cognitive problems often precede PD diagnosis, identifying specific domains most involved with mTBI-related PD onset is critical. Objectives: To discern which cognitive domains underlie the mTBI-PD risk relationship proposed in epidemiology studies. Design and setting: This exploratory match-controlled, cross-sectional study was conducted in a medical school laboratory from 2017-2020. Participants: Age- and IQ-matched veterans with (+) and without mTBI, non-veteran healthy controls, and IQ-matched non-demented early-stage PD were compared. Chronic neurological, unremitted/ debilitating diseases, disorders, dementia, and substance use among others were excluded. Exposure: Veterans were or were not exposed to non-penetrating combat-related mTBI occurring within the past 7-years. No other groups had recent military service or mTBI. Main outcomes / measures: Cognitive flexibility, attention, memory, visuospatial ability, and verbal fluency were examined with well-known standardized neuropsychological assessments. Results: Out of 200 volunteers, 114 provided evaluable data. Groups significantly differed on cognitive tests [F (21,299) = 3.09, p<0.0001]. Post hoc tests showed veterans (+) mTBI performed significantly worse than matched-control groups on four out of eight cognitive tests (range: p = .009 to .049), and more often than not performed comparably to early-stage PD (range: p = .749 to .140). Conclusions and relevance: We found subtle, premature cognitive decline occurring in very specific cognitive domains in veterans (+) mTBI that would typically be overlooked in a clinic setting, This result potentially puts them at-risk for continual cognitive decline that may portend to the eventual onset of PD or some other neurodegenerative disease.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85119451023&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0258851
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0258851
M3 - Article
C2 - 34788310
AN - SCOPUS:85119451023
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 16
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 11 November
M1 - e0258851
ER -