Diagnostic Validation for Participants in the Washington State Parkinson Disease Registry

BACKGROUND: The Washington State Parkinson Disease Registry (WPDR) was created to facilitate recruitment for Parkinson's disease (PD) research studies conducted in the Pacific Northwest. The success of registries that rely on self-report is dependent on the accuracy of the information provided by participants, particularly diagnosis. OBJECTIVE AND METHODS: Our goal was to assess diagnostic accuracy within the WPDR cohort. We randomly selected and attempted to contact 168 of the 1,278 actively enrolled WPDR participants. Those who responded were invited to undergo an interview and neurological examination performed by a PD specialist. If an in-person assessment was not possible, we sought information collected during participation in prior research studies or from review of medical records. A diagnosis was considered “validated” if the individual met UK Parkinson's Disease Society Brain Bank (UKBB) clinical diagnostic criteria for PD. RESULTS: Data were ascertained for 106 participants; 77 underwent an in-person assessment, 21 had data available from a prior research study, and 8 provided access to medical records. Diagnostic accuracy within the overall sample was 93.4% (95% confidence interval (86.4%, 97.1%)). Seven patients did not fulfill UKBB criteria for the following reasons: early severe autonomic involvement (n=3), history of neuroleptic treatment (n=1), presence of the Babinski sign (n=1), or insufficient supportive criteria (n=2). CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that studies which use the WPDR for recruitment will rarely encounter patients who are misdiagnosed. This further supports the utility of the WPDR as an effective recruitment tool for PD research in the Pacific Northwest.