Simple blood test to diagnose Parkinson’s

A NEW blood test could give doctors the first quick and simple way of diagnosing Parkinson’s disease, a study suggests.

Patients currently have to undergo an intrusive spinal fluid test to determine whether their symptoms are caused by Parkinson’s, but Swedish experts have discovered a protein in the blood which is an accurate marker of the disease.

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

There is no cure and no way of stopping the progression of the disease, but the progressive nerve cell damage produced by Parkinson’s is thought to begin long before symptoms appear.

An early test may help doctors slow the symptoms, if not the course of the disease.

Study leader Dr Oskar Hansson, whose work is published in the Neurology medical journal, said: ‘We have found that concentrations of a nerve protein in the blood can discriminate between these diseases as accurately as concentrations of that same protein in spinal fluid.’

Researchers tested the blood of 504 people from Britain and Sweden, including healthy people and those who had been living with Parkinson’s for up to six years. They found the blood test was just as accurate as a spinal fluid test.

Claire Bale, of Parkinson’s UK, said: ‘This test is very promising.’