In the first research phase, the test proved to be accurate in 95 percent of the cases. The next phase is that it will be tested in the field, on people who may have Parkinson’s. If successful, it would be the first test to diagnose Parkinson’s. Now the diagnosis is made on the basis of symptoms.
Three minutes
According to the scientists, the new test works very simply: a cotton swab is passed along the patient’s neck, and within three minutes it is clear whether he has Parkinson’s.
What is Parkinson’s?
According to the Parkinson’s Association, there are about 63,500 people with Parkinson’s in the Netherlands, both men and women. In patients with this disease, nerve cells in the brain die. As a result, less dopamine is produced – the substance with which parts of the brain communicate with each other, giving the body commands.
Signals are therefore less well transmitted in people with Parkinson’s. As a result, they have to think a lot more about their movements, which logically become slower. Patients also suffer from trembling, stiff muscles and a ‘mask face’ (an expressionless face). But also lack of initiative, poor speech, sleeping problems, problems with thinking and mood disorders are common.
The disease is progressive and incurable. However, there are treatments that can slow down the disease process, such as medicines and therapies.
Source: Parkinson Association
Back in time, to the moment when the now 72-year-old Joy Milne – as it turned out afterwards – had smelled Parkinson’s for the first time. That was with her husband Les, who was 33 at the time. She smelled a change in his body odor, especially his neck and shoulders. “A musky air,” she called it herself, according to British broadcaster Sky News.
Diagnose
She didn’t look much into it, until twelve years later Les was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and she went with him to a peer group. Everyone with Parkinson’s had the same – in her opinion unpleasant – smell as Les.
When scientists at the University of Manchester learned of her striking observation, they asked her to collaborate. They wanted to find out where that smell came from, and whether it could play a role in making a diagnosis.
t-shirts smell
But first, according to Sky News, they wanted to make sure Milne could smell if someone has Parkinson’s. That’s why they let her smell T-shirts from people with and without Parkinson’s. Milne removed all Parkinson’s patients, but also one person from the group they thought did not have the disease. Not much later, that person went to the doctor with complaints, and eight months after Milne picked out that person’s T-shirt, he or she was diagnosed.
That was in 2012, three years before Les would die from the disease. In 2019, the researchers had a clue: they discovered that Parkinson’s causes a very small change in the sebum of patients. They developed a test that makes it easy to detect this change. They hope to be able to use that test for people in the Manchester area within two years. If successful, it can also be used in other places.
‘Incredibly important’
James Jopling, the Scottish director of Parkinson’s UK Parkinson’s Association, says the discovery could make a big difference for people who have the disease. “There is now no test, so people have to wait months or years before a diagnosis can be made,” he told the British broadcaster BBC. “The fact that this test can immediately provide them with the treatment and support they need and that researchers can use these results to look for new treatment methods is incredibly important.”
Milne also thinks an early diagnosis of her husband Les could have made a big difference to her and her family. “We would have spent more time together,” she told the BBC. “We would have traveled more. And we might have understood where Les’s mood swings and depression came from.”
The fact that the development phase of the Parkinson’s test is over does not mean that Milne and her nose are retiring. She has already been to Tanzania and the United States to see if she can also smell tuberculosis and cancer.