Improving estimation of Parkinson’s disease risk—the enhanced PREDICT-PD algorithm

We previously reported a basic algorithm to identify the risk of Parkinson’s disease (PD) using published data on risk factors and prodromal features. Using this algorithm, the PREDICT-PD study identified individuals at increased risk of PD and used tapping speed, hyposmia and REM sleep behaviour disorder (RBD) as “intermediate” markers of prodromal PD in the absence of sufficient incident cases. We have now developed and tested an enhanced algorithm which incorporates the intermediate markers into the risk model. Risk estimates were compared using the enhanced and the basic algorithm in members of the PREDICT-PD pilot cohort. The enhanced PREDICT-PD algorithm yielded a much greater range of risk estimates than the basic algorithm (93–609-fold difference between the 10th and 90th centiles vs 10–13-fold respectively). There was a greater increase in the risk of PD with increasing risk scores for the enhanced algorithm than for the basic algorithm (hazard ratios per one standard deviation increase in log risk of 2.75 [95% CI 1.68–4.50; p < 0.001] versus 1.47 [95% CI 0.86–2.51; p = 0.16] respectively). Estimates from the enhanced algorithm also correlated more closely with subclinical striatal DaT-SPECT dopamine depletion (R(2) = 0.164, p = 0.005 vs R(2) = 0.043, p = 0.17). Incorporating the previous intermediate markers of prodromal PD and using likelihood ratios improved the accuracy of the PREDICT-PD prediction algorithm.