The device, already patented, will allow the cause of the tremor to be detected in a few seconds
June 5, 2017 - A wristwatch that, in a few seconds, allows the diagnosis of Parkinson's. The device, already patented, will cost a few tens of euros and was developed by a young neurologist UCBM, in the context of a collaboration between theresearch unit and the Oxford University Department of Neuroscience. Soon available to neurologists and family doctor clinics, the test lasts just 10 seconds and allows to detect if the patient has Parkinson's disease or if the shaking of his hands is diagnosable as essential tremor, a pathology which on the contrary does not present a progressive evolution and which requires a different treatment.
The results relating to the application of the highly innovative tool have recently been published in the journal Brain e presented at the ongoing international congress on Parkinson's and movement disorders in Vancouver, where first research author and co-patent holder, the neurologist UCBM Lazzaro Di Biase, was awarded the 'young researchers' award. The specialist explained: “For many years, neurologists have been trying to arrive at what we have discovered: a non-invasive diagnostic index of Parkinson's disease with an accuracy close to 92 percent”. The data of the studies carried out, in fact, is far better than the 80 percent achieved by the clinical diagnosis, as well as compared to the results of the cerebral SPECT, a diagnostic test which also uses rays harmful to health, in addition to being present in few hospital centers and with long waiting lists and high costs.
The 'secret' of the special watch - which also received recognition from the Italian Academy for Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders as the best oral communication and the Young Researchers Award from the Italian Society of Neurophysiology - lies in particular algorithm patented by scientists and capable of automatically predicting the patient's diagnosis, starting from the analysis of the tremor. Currently, in fact, underlines the researcher, "the diagnostic error is equal to about 40 percent in cases of essential tremor and 20 percent in Parkinson's". Percentages that rise for non-expert neurologists. One of the strengths of the project also lies in the vastness and variety of the sample analysed, both possible thanks to the involvement of the world's top tremor experts, who provided their patient data to test and validate the algorithm.
For the future, the researchers now aim to achieve an accuracy index of 99 percent: "The results obtained with our instrument - says its inventor - will be tested on the data of patients for whom the results of brain autopsies are also available, because the diagnosis of Parkinson's with certainty is currently only possible by verifying the reduction of the cells that produce dopamine in the black substance of the midbrain". Meanwhile, the system it will also avoid delays in diagnosiscurrently very frequent.
