Early Diagnosis of Parkinson's: New Test Offers Hope

Author’s note: This article is summarized from various sources and attributions are linked within.

image of lab testsPhoto byNational Cancer InstituteonUnsplash

Press Rundown reported that a recent study found a new way to diagnosis Parkinson’s patients. Though there’s no cure for this disease, which affects one million people in the U.S., ten million worldwide, and almost 100,000 in California, early diagnosis can allow for treatment to help slow down the progression of the disease. 90,000 new cases are reported worldwide annually.

Parkinson's is the second most common neurodegenerative condition, second only to Alzheimer’s. This disease affects a person's movement and motor skills. “It is typically diagnosed once symptoms such as slow movement or stiff limbs become apparent. However, signs of degeneration in the nervous system may be present much earlier.”

The Lund University study in Sweden tested the spinal fluid of 81 people with Parkinson’s or a related condition named Dementia with Lewey Bodies (DLB) as well as 347 volunteers with neither condition. Researchers found that “that those with Parkinson's disease or DLB had significantly higher levels of DOPA decarboxylase compared to those without the conditions.” Interestingly, of 35 patients who were not previously diagnosed with Parkinson’s but had elevated levels of DOPA decarboxylase, “after three years of monitoring, 12 of these individuals went on to develop Parkinson's or DLB.”

After these findings, researchers repeated the test with a different group of “94 people and found the same correlation between DOPA decarboxylase levels and Parkinsonian disorders. They additionally found a similar correlation in blood plasma samples from 282 people.”

Though the findings are preliminary and larger studies will be required for validation, “they offer promising potential for the early diagnosis of Parkinson's disease and other related conditions. Early diagnosis would allow individuals to access treatments for their symptoms sooner and potentially improve their overall quality of life.”

Everydayhealth lists five must-see movies about Parkinson's including the 1990 movie Awakenings, based on the true story of Oliver Sacks, MD who treated patients "he encountered in 1969 in a hospital in the Bronx, New York, who had been “frozen,” by encephalitis lethargica, a severe viral disease that spread throughout the world between 1917 and 1928."

The drug he used to "awaken" them was the "then-new L-dopa, or levodopa, which is still used in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease today."