Cognitive fluctuations in Parkinson’s disease dementia: blood pressure lability as an underlying mechanism

BACKGROUND: Cognitive fluctuations refer to alterations in cognition, attention, or arousal occurring over minutes to hours, most commonly in patients with dementias associated with advanced Lewy body pathology. Their pathophysiologic underpinning remains undetermined. CASE PRESENTATION: We documented serial blood pressure (BP) measurements in an 86-year-old man with Parkinson’s disease dementia experiencing cognitive fluctuations during an office visit. This patient’s associated dysautonomia included labile BP with orthostatic hypotension and nocturnal hypertension. A spontaneous episode of unresponsiveness occurred while his BP was 72/48. His mental status began to recover immediately as his BP increased to 84/56 when he was placed in a recumbent position; it fully returned to baseline when it reached 124/66 within 1 min. His heart rate remained in the mid-to-high 60s throughout. Subsequent treatment with midodrine markedly reduced the frequency of cognitive fluctuations. CONCLUSIONS: Paroxysmal hypotension may represent an explanatory mechanism for cognitive fluctuations, a common clinical feature in patients with Parkinson’s disease dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies.