Prodromal markers in Parkinson's disease: Limitations in longitudinal studies and lessons learned

Heinzel, S. et al. (2016) Prodromal markers in Parkinson's disease: Limitations in longitudinal studies and lessons learned. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 8, 147. (doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2016.00147) (PMID:27445791) (PMCID:PMC4916171)

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Abstract

A growing body of evidence supports a prodromal neurodegenerative process preceding the clinical onset of Parkinson's disease (PD). Studies have identified several different prodromal markers that may have the potential to predict the conversion from healthy to clinical PD but use considerably different approaches. We systematically reviewed 35 longitudinal studies reporting prodromal PD features and evaluated the methodological quality across 10 different predefined domains. We found limitations in the following domains: PD diagnosis (57% of studies), prodromal marker assessments (51%), temporal information on prodromal markers or PD diagnosis (34%), generalizability of results (17%), statistical methods (accounting for at least age as confounder; 17%), study design (14%), and sample size (9%). However, no limitations regarding drop-out (or bias investigation), or report of inclusion/exclusion criteria or prodromal marker associations were revealed. Lessons learned from these limitations and additional aspects of current prodromal marker studies in PD are discussed to provide a basis for the evaluation of findings and the improvement of future research in prodromal PD. The observed heterogeneity of studies, limitations and analyses might be addressed in future longitudinal studies using a, yet to be established, modular minimal set of assessments improving comparability of findings and enabling data sharing and combined analyses across studies.

Item Type:Articles
Additional Information:FUNDING: This work of the BioLoC-PD working group was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; funding number: 01ED1410), Germany, under the aegis of the EU Joint Programme—Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND). The authors also acknowledge the support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the open access fund of the University of Tübingen. SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnagi. 2016.00147/abstract.
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Grosset, Professor Donald
Authors: Heinzel, S., Roeben, B., Ben-Shlomo, Y., Lerche, S., Alves, G., Barone, P., Behnke, S., Berendse, H. W., Bloem, B. R., Burn, D., Dodel, R., Grosset, D. G., Hu, M., Kasten, M., Kruger, R., Moccia, M., Mollenhauer, B., Oertel, W., Suenkel, U., Walter, U., Wirdefeldt, K., Liepelt-Scarfone, I., Maetzler, W., and Berg, D.
College/School:College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Psychology & Neuroscience
Journal Name:Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
Publisher:Frontiers Media
ISSN:1663-4365
ISSN (Online):1663-4365
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2016 2016 Heinzel, Roeben et al
First Published:First published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 8:147
Publisher Policy:Reproduced under a Creative Commons License
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