Montreal cognitive assessment in primary sjogren’s syndrome: A brief screening tool

OBJECTIVES: To use the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) test to assess the subclinical cognitive impairment in patients with Primary Sjögren’s Syndrome (PSS) and assess the correlation of MoCA results with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in these patients. METHODS: The MoCA test was prospectively administered to 32 consecutive patients (31 females, 1 male) diagnosed with PSS and 30 healthy controls (29 females, 1 male) at Antalya Education and Research Hospital between June 2014 and October 2015. Twenty PSS patients underwent a brain MRI (T1, T2, and T2- FLAIR-weighted sequences). RESULTS: The mean age was 45.84 (range 24-63) in the PSS group, and the mean duration of disease was 3.5 years (4 months - 18 years). There were 22 patients (68.80%) with 5-8 years of education and 10 patients (31.30%) with >8 years of education. The mean age was 42.8 (28-64) in the control group. There were 20 controls (66.70%) with 5-8 years of education and 10 controls (33.3%) with >8 years of education. The delayed recall rate of the patient group with 5-8 years of education was significantly lower than that of the control group, and the recall rate with multiple choice cues for the same patient group was significantly higher than that of the control group (p<0.05). There was no correlation between the number of lesions and total MoCA score or subgroups. CONCLUSION: We suggest that the MoCA test is a single-page, easy-to-administer test, can be used to assess cognition in patients with PSS especially in large groups.