High plasma triglycerides protect patients with PD against cognitive impairment

In patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), the high risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) at the time of diagnosis correlates with low levels of plasma triglycerides (P-TG) and an interaction between change in BMI and P-TG prior to diagnosis, reports a study.

This finding suggests the complex influence of nutritional factors on cognitive function in the prodromal stage of PD.

High P-TG (odds ratio [OR], 0.31, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.11–0.87) at the time of diagnosis showed a protective effect against MCI, while a high age (OR, 1.11, 95 percent CI, 1.02–1.22) appeared to increase the risk, in patients with PD. In contrast, BMI did not predict MCI at diagnosis (adjusted OR, 0.99, 95 percent CI, 0.88–1.13) or for change over time (adjusted OR, 1.12, 95 percent CI, 0.94–1.33).

Furthermore, an increase in P-TG conferred protective benefits against MCI (OR, 0.34, 95 percent CI, 0.13–0.88), while an interaction between change in BMI and P-TG increased the MCI risk (OR, 2.21, 95 percent CI, 1.02–4.77).

In this study, the authors identified patients with PD in a community-based study of idiopathic Parkinsonism (n=151), where the database was crosslinked to the Northern Sweden Health and Disease Study. This prospective cohort study (n=96) considered the timepoint for the healthcare visit, the baseline, and time for diagnosis as follow-up.

At the time of PD diagnosis, 42 patients (43.8 percent) were diagnosed with MCI. The authors explored the associations of prodromal body weight changes and blood lipids with the risk of MCI at PD diagnosis using logistic regression, adjusted for age and sex.