As many as 25 per cent
of patients who are told they have Parkinson's disease actually have other
degenerative brain illnesses, prompting Australian doctors to investigate more
accurate ways to diagnose the illness.
Key points:
•
Many diagnosed with Parkinson's may have dementia with Lewy
bodies
•
Expert says it is dangerous to confuse the conditions
•
Australian doctors taking part in a worldwide trial that could
more accurately diagnose patients
The widow of the late
actor Robin Williams revealed that her husband was
actually suffering from a condition called dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB),
a complex and often misunderstood brain illness.
 |
| Journalist Liz Jackson turns the camera on herself to reveal her diagnosis of Parkinson's. |
And former
award-winning ABC journalist Liz Jackson has
also been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and told there was
evidence she also may have DLB.
In patients with
either Parkinson's or DLB, abnormal clumps of the same protein is present in
the brain, though often it is found in different parts of the brain.
Simon Lewis says,Mistreatment of dementia with levy bodies can be deadly
That has led some
doctors to want to scrap the terms Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy
bodies and call it all Lewy Body disease.
However, a move is not
supported by Professor Simon Lewis, from the Brain and Mind Research Institute
at the University of Sydney.
"In the absence
of a cure, people want to know what their future holds and you can't tell the
future when you don't have a diagnosis," Professor Lewis said.
"Calling it Lewy
Body disease doesn't help to explain to patients and their families what might
happen to them."
Professor Lewis
studies and treats patients with both conditions and said they displayed quite
different symptoms.
"In Parkinson's,
you see primarily physical symptoms such as tremor, which can usually be
controlled for years with medication," he said.
He said in DLB,
patients have had significant memory problems and often progress to dementia
within two years.
Knowing which illness
patients have is crucial, as some medications commonly prescribed for
Parkinson's disease can be fatal for DLB patients.
The mainstay treatment
for Parkinson's called levodopa can often aggravate patients who have DLB.
"It can make them
more confused and increase hallucinations," Professor Lewis said.
"If patients who are told they have
Alzheimer's disease but actually have Lewy body dementia are given the older
anti-psychotic drugs such as Risperidone, it can be fatal."
Trial to diagnose patients earlier
Australian doctors are
taking part in a worldwide trial that could more accurately diagnose patients
with Parkinson's disease.
More than 600 patients
are being recruited at 10 centres around the world, including the Brain and
Mind Centre.
It will test patients
on their sense of smell, and investigate whether they have sleep disorders
which can both be risk factors for Parkinson's disease.
"We are hoping to
find out can we develop diagnostic tests to determine who has which
illness," Professor Lewis said.
"Until then,
educating patients and doctors about the differences in the illnesses is the
key to getting the proper diagnosis."
The ultimate hope is
to more accurately diagnose DLB to be able to identify biomarkers in the blood
and develop PET scans which can pick up the protein found in the brains of
patients.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-21/calls-to-scrap-diagnosis-of-parkinson's-disease/8038220?
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