Validation of a scale for deciding on the referral of patients with Parkinson’s disease to a competence center for selection for interventional therapies

Objective. To validate a Russian-language questionnaire scale for quick evaluation and decision-making regarding the referral of patients diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease (PD) to specialized centers for assessment and selection for interventional therapies (IT). Material and methods. This study involves a diagnostic evaluation of a scale developed to quickly identify PD patients who may require referral to specialized centers for IT selection. A total of 100 patients with PD were assessed; 72 required ongoing monitoring and/or optimization of pharmacological treatment, while 28 were deemed suitable candidates based on the CAPSIT-PD criteria. The study analyzed the scale’s reliability and its convergent and discriminant validity. Results. The validation process revealed that the scale demonstrated high reliability in identifying patients with advanced PD who may be appropriate candidates for IT. The predictive model, developed through binary logistic regression, demonstrated an area under the ROC curve of 0.84 (95% CI 0.74—0.93) in predicting the probability of identifying suitable candidates. Furthermore, the model achieved a sensitivity of 75.0% (21 of 28 patients) and a specificity of 93.1% (67 of 72 patients). The sensitivity and specificity of the IT-PD scale—used to select candidates for interventional therapy—were evaluated at a threshold of 11 points or higher, yielding 89.3% and 91.7%, respectively. Conclusions. The concise and user-friendly IT-PD score effectively assesses the critical criteria for selecting candidates for interventional therapy, thereby supporting timely referral decisions to specialized centers.