Parkinson disease which is a long term disorder of the central nervous system that affects movement is one scary type of disease which occurs gradually and worsens over time. It has no cure, it’s cause is unknown which makes it more scary and worsens over time as the symptoms progresses. This neurological disorder involves symptoms such as tremors, stiffness, slowness of movement, trouble balancing, difficulty with working and coordinating movements while less obvious symptoms include anxiety, fatigue, depression and constipation. There is no standard method of diagnosing Parkinson’s disease until recently discovered that the use of blood test’s might also be an accurate method of diagnosing the disease.
According to the American Academy of Neurology in a study published recently in their medical journal, a new blood test may be accurate as a test requiring painful spinal tap for differentiating parkinson’s disorder from other disorders. The study was carried out and led by Dr. Oskar Hansson, who is a neurologist and an associate Professor at Lund University in Sweden. He said over time most doctors have found it difficult to accurately tell whether a patient has Parkinson’s disease or atypical parkinsonism.
In his words;
"This can be very challenging, especially during the early stages of the diseases and if the responsible doctor is not a neurologist specialized in movement disorders, non-specialists do not really know exactly what questions to ask the patient and the special signs to look for. Yet patients with atypical disorders usually have a much worse prognosis, with faster disease progression, with more disabling symptoms" than Parkinson's patients, so early identification is crucial.
The study was on a blood test carried out by Hansson and his colleagues which was essentially based on a variation on an existing test capable of detecting neurofilament light chain protein in spinal fluid. The protein is a component of the nerve cells which when they die it can be detected in both spinal fluid and blood. Spinal fluid can’t be easily obtained by a primary doctor as well as not very useful in relation to the disease, this lead to Hansson developing a new method which was the trial of blood test of which it accuracy was tested.
The study involved 224 people with parkinson and 79 healthy volunteers along with 181 patients with atypical parkinsonism disorder serving as a comparison group in the study. 88 patients had multiple system atophy whch impairs the body’s involuntary functions such as heart rate, blood pressure and digestion while 70 percent had progressive supranuclear palsy. Another 23 patients had corticobasal degeneration whch causes decreased movement on one side of the body .
After carrying out proper tests among the participants, the researchers discovered that nerve protein levels ranged higher in people with atypical parkinsonism and lower in patients with parkinson disease as well as the healthy volunteers.
The test however couldn’t differenciate the types of disorders which doctors needed symptoms to diagnose. The deterninant of the blood test accuracy is dependent on the percentage of positives that are correctly identified. In Sweden it was discovered that blood test had a sensitivity of 82% and a specificity of 91% while in the United Kingdom, sensitivity was 80% and 90%. Overall, the blood test showed equal accuracy as the spinal fluid test when diagnosing Parkinson's or an atypical parkinsonism disorder, in both early and later stages of disease.
In conclusion the accuracy of blood test in diagnosing Parkinson’s or an atypical parkinsonism showed equal results as the spinal fluid in both early and later stages thereby making it valid.
Image:
https://innovativemedicine.com/the-hidden-causes-of-parkinsons-disease/
Source:
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/08/health/parkinsons-disease-blood-test-study/