According to studies published in Movement Disorders, salivary gland testing can be a new way to diagnose Parkinson’s early.
The Parkinson’s Disease Center (PDF) reported one million Americans with Parkinson’s disease, saying that 60,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, and yet thousands are unknown. (Shargh Newspaper: This figure is about 150,000 in Iran.)
Parkinson’s usually occurs in the elderly, but in 4% of cases, it can be diagnosed before the age of 50. Men are one and a half times more likely to get the disease than women.
These destructive neurological disorders affect movement, sleep, walking, balance, blood pressure , and sense of smell . There is no cure for this disease but medications can relieve the symptoms.
The first and most well-known symptom of this disease is hand tremors. One of the possible events is stiffness or slowness in movement that gets worse over time.
No test has been able to accurately diagnose the disease. Current diagnoses are based entirely on medical history, signs and symptoms, neurological tests, and other possibilities.
Sampling of the submandibular salivary gland can lead to early diagnosis
The researchers found that in 45% of cases, a misdiagnosis was made in the early stages, so they looked for a way called “superficial salivary gland biopsy” to get a definitive answer.
In this way, part of the gland nucleus is removed by dipping a needle into the submandibular salivary gland.
The scientists looked for a protein in the cells to detect Parkinson’s in the early stages, and tested samples of one of the glands for this purpose, and the efficiency of the tests they performed on the samples in detecting unusual proteins in 9 out of 12 patients. Patients with advanced Parkinson’s observed.
The new study included 25 patients with Parkinson’s less than 5 years old and 10 healthy people. Of these 25 patients, 19 had good tissue to be examined, and the researchers looked for Parkinson’s protein in a sample taken and then compared their results with healthy people.
The protein was found in 14 of 19 patients.
The researchers added:
This will allow a much more accurate diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease than is currently possible. One of the biggest possible effects of these findings will be on medical tests. Currently, some people who go to Parkinson’s treatment centers do not have Parkinson’s, and the misconception that they have Parkinson’s does not allow them to suspect other illnesses.
Even for patients who actually have Parkinson’s, using a submandibular salivary gland sampling test can be very helpful because tests taken at an early stage can no longer be relied upon, and more accurate results can be found in tests 10 years after the disease has developed. Will be displayed.
The research team hopes to gain a better understanding of the disease and find better treatments.