New six-minute test could offer a way of identifying early stage Parkinson's disease for the first time

Scientists have developed a six-minute test which could give an early diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease.

Currently Parkinson’s patients only discover they have the debilitating neurological problem when the symptoms have already taken hold.

But Oxford University academics have come up with a new way of spotting the disease at an early stage.

The researchers were able to detect early Parkinson’s disease with a remarkable 85 per cent accuracy.

The technique uses an MRI scanner to monitor the neural connections in a concentrated area at the very centre of the brain.

Even at a very early stage, Parkinson’s patients had much weaker connections in the basal ganglia region of the brain, which is associated with motor control.

The study, which has been published in the journal Neurology, found that by taking 180 pictures in six minutes they could spot the poor connections.

They also found that the test had a very low chance of incorrectly diagnosing healthy people with the disease.

A new six-minute test could diagnose Parkinson's disease in its early stages. Michael J. Fox (pictured) was diagnosed with the disease in 1991

The said scans could be done on people in their fifties, the age when the condition usually begins to take hold.

Study leader Dr Clare Mackay, a psychiatrist at Oxford University, said: ‘At the moment we have no way to predict who is at risk of Parkinson’s disease in the vast majority of cases.

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Currently it is only possible to diagnose Parkinson's disease when it is more advanced. Billy Connolly (pictured) was diagnosed with the disease in September last year on the same day as he was told he had cancer

‘We are excited that this MRI technique might prove to be a good marker for the earliest signs of Parkinson’s. The results are very promising.’

Around 127,000 people in the UK are believed to have Parkinson’s, which causes tremors, slow movements and muscle rigidity.

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The new test uses an MRI scanner to monitor the neural connections at the very centre of the brain. Sir Roger Bannister (pictured) has recently revealed that he has Parkinson's

There is currently no cure and no way of halting the disease.

But the progressive nerve cell damage produced by Parkinson’s is thought to begin long before any symptoms appear. 

Dr Mackay said: ‘We are still at least ten years away from that magic breakthrough which allows us to slow down the progression of Parkinson’s. 

'But in order to get there, we need a way of spotting the disease early on. The two things go hand in hand.’ 

And co-author Dr Michele Hu, from Oxford University’s Nuffield department of clinical neurosciences, said: ‘Because it is so sensitive, we hope that it will be able to predict who is at risk of disease before any symptoms have developed.’

Claire Bale, a spokesman for Parkinson’s UK, which funded the research, added: ‘This new research takes us one step closer to diagnosing Parkinson’s at a much earlier stage – one of the biggest challenges facing research into the condition.

‘One person every hour is diagnosed with Parkinson’s in the UK, and we hope that the researchers are able to continue to refine their test so that it can one day be part of clinical practice.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2655259/New-six-minute-test-offer-way-identifying-early-stage-Parkinsons-disease-time.html#ixzz3788vJoAZ
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