Biopsy to Diagnose Parkinson''s Disease at an Early Stage

London, Apr 11, 2016 (Prensa Latina)

Two millimeters of submandibular gland, located at the back of the mouth, are enough to diagnose Parkinson''s disease at an early stage in asymptomatic patients.

According to an article published in The Lancet Neurology magazine, Europeans scientists explained that they studied people with REM sleep behavior disorder in which people physically act out vivid, often unpleasant dreams with vocal sounds and sudden, often violent arm and leg movements.

The researchers performed the biopsies in 21 people with sleep disorders, in 24 with Parkinson's disease and 26 healthy people. They detected the protein alpha-synuclein in 90 percent of patients with sleep disorders and 70 percent of those with Parkinson.

These results show that the biopsy is useful as a confirmatory test to diagnose this disease in those people whose disease has not begun and to identify synuclein aggregates in the submandibular gland in cases of uncertain diagnosis.

According to the researchers from the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, the study opens a door to the scientific community to develop anti-synuclein vaccines in order to avoid the the accumulation of the protein and to block the progression of the disease.

Parkinson's disease affects the brain areas controlling the coordination of movements and balance and begins 15 or 20 years before the symptoms emerge.

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