Peripheral Leukocytosis Predicts Cognitive Decline but Not Behavioral Disturbances: A Nationwide Study of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease Patients

Introduction: Peripheral and central nervous system inflammation have been linked to the classic symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, it remains unclear whether the analysis of routine systemic inflammatory markers could represent a useful prediction tool to identify clinical subtypes in patients with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's at higher risk of dementia-associated symptoms, such as behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD).

Methods: We performed a multivariate logistic regression using the 2016 and 2017 National Inpatient Sample with International Classification of Diseases 10th edition codes to assess if pro-inflammatory white blood cells (WBCs) anomalies correlate with dementia and BPSD in patients with these disorders.

Results: We found that leukocytosis was the most common WBC inflammatory marker identified in 3.9% of Alzheimer's and 3.3% Parkinson's patients. Leukocytosis was also found to be an independent risk factor for Parkinson's dementia. Multivariate analysis of both cohorts showed that leukocytosis is significantly decreased in patients with BPSD compared to patients without BPSD.

Conclusions: These results suggest a link between leukocytosis and the pathophysiology of cognitive dysfunction in both PD and AD. A better understanding of the role of systemic neuroinflammation on these devastating neurodegenerative disorders may facilitate the development of cost-effective blood biomarkers for patient's early diagnosis and more accurate prognosis.