An incredible sense of dog’s smell has long been used to track refugees, find human remains and disclosure of hidden drugs, but now researchers say they can also detect Parkinson’s disease with excellent accuracy. In a recent study published in Parkinson’s disease, two specially trained dogs determined the condition using skin tampons, with up to 80% success in detecting confirmed Parkinson cases and up to 98% accuracy in the removal of healthy people. Scientists believe that this discovery can pave the way to a quick, non -inflicted and cost -effective method of early diagnosis.
Dogs trained to sniff the symptoms of Parkinson
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive brain impairment that affects movement, often causing chills, stiffness and coordination problems. One of the little -known symptoms is the overproduction of the fat, the fatty substance that is released by the skin. Researchers believe that this extra bacon radiates a clear odor that dogs can be taught to recognize. Initially, five dogs began to train, but only two were a strict selection process: bumper, 2-year gold retriever and peanuts, 3-year-old black labrador. These dogs trained on more than 200 skin samples, both in Parkinson patients and healthy people, learning to identify the disease only through the aroma.
Prospective accuracy in early diagnosis
During the double blind testing, where the researchers did not know what samples the Parkinson patients were, dogs demonstrated impressive accuracy. The bumper and peanuts correctly identified the Parkinson samples about 80% of the time and avoided false positive results with the accuracy of 98%, even if other health conditions were present. Leading researcher Dr. Nicola Runny from the University of Brist said that dogs can help develop early detection tools for Parkinson, a disease that has not been diagnosed for years. Claire Guest, CEO of Medical Dogs, emphasized that early diagnosis can allow interventions to slow the progression of the disease and improve the quality of life.
