Decline in changing montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA) scores is associated withpost-stroke cognitive decline determined by a formal neuropsychological evaluation

Abstract

Objectives We aimed to examine changes in the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores within a one-year period after stroke/transient ischemic attack (TIA) in associating cognitive decline determined by a formal neuropsychological test battery. Methods Patients with ischemic stroke/TIA received MoCA and MMSE at baseline within 14 days after stroke/TIA, at 3 lusmn;6 months and 1-year follow-ups. The scores of MoCA and MMSE were considered to have declined if there were a reduction of -2 points in the respective scores measured across two time points. The decline in neuropsychological diagnosis transitional status was defined by a category transition from no cognitive impairment or any cognitive impairment to a more severe cognitive impairment or dementia. Results 275 patients with a mean age of 59.8 lusmn; 11.6 years, and education of 7.7 lusmn; 4.3 years completed all the assessments at baseline, 3 lusmn;6 months and 1-year follow-ups. A decline in MoCA scores from 3 lusmn;6 months to 1 year was associated with higher risk of decline in diagnosis transitional status (odd ratio = 3.21, p = 0.004) in the same time period whereas there was no association with a decline in MMSE scores. Conclusions The decline in MoCA scores from 3 lusmn;6 months to 1 year after stroke/TIA has three times higher risk for decline in the diagnosis transitional status. The decline of MoCA scores (reduction > 2points) is associated with the decline in neuropsychological diagnosis transitional status. © 2017 Tan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.