Virendra Mishra, PhD: Predicting Parkinson Disease Dementia

“As a clinician, we would be able tell a participant that you’re on the track to develop this dementia and then maybe come up with ways to manage the disease because the participant is now aware.”

After receiving a $3.8 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Virendra Mishra, PhD, and his fellow colleagues at Cleveland Clinic are tasked with developing a predictive mathematical model to identify specific individuals with Parkinson disease (PD) who may develop dementia as their disease progresses. Mishra, an associate staff researcher, will aim to understand how functional brain connectivity and structural brain connectivity differ in dementia in PD, while also identifying the best biomarkers that predict this process.

Despite dementia occurrence rates nearing approximately 50% to 80% of those living with PD, there are still no FDA-approved diagnostic tools that can predict this disorder. If successful, Mishra explained that the predictive model could offer physicians benefits from both a clinical and research standpoint.

In an interview with NeurologyLive, Mishra details that potential impact of the model if it is successful in the study, as well as elucidated the specific benefits that both research and clinical care settings could gain from an operational and effective prediction model.