Researchers aimed to determine the diagnostic accuracy of a clinical diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease using neuropathologic diagnosis as the standard. The accuracy of diagnosis was found to be very poor.
Data were used to determine the predictive value of a clinical Parkinson's Disease diagnosis, using two clinical diagnostic confidence levels :
Poss PD (never treated or not clearly responsive) and ProbPD (responsive to medications).
Using neuropathologic findings of Parkinson's Disease as the
standard, this study established a finding of only 26%
accuracy for a clinical diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease in
untreated patients, 53% accuracy in early Parkinson's Disease
of less than five years duration that was responsive to
medication, and 85% diagnostic accuracy in Parkinson's
Disease of longer duration that was medication-responsive.
Clinical variables that improved diagnostic accuracy were medication response, motor fluctuations, dyskinesias, and hyposmia (reduced sense of smell).
This study showed that a clinical diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease identifies people who will have pathologically confirmed Parkinson's Disease with a sensitivity of 88% and specificity of 68%. For more information concerning the diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease
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