Nose2Diagnosis program: sniffer dogs detect Parkinson’s disease
People with Parkinson’s disease have an odour that can be reliably detected from skin swabs by trained dogs, a new study has shown. Two dogs from the Medical Detection Dogs organization were trained to distinguish between tallow swabs from people with and without Parkinson’s disease.
In a double-blind study, they showed a sensitivity of up to 80 % and a specificity of up to 98 %.
And that’s not all: they also discovered Parkinson’s disease in samples from patients suffering from other diseases.
The dogs were trained for several weeks on over 200 odor samples from people who had tested positive for Parkinson’s disease, as well as on control samples from people who did not have the disease. The samples were presented to the dogs on a stand, and the dogs were rewarded if they correctly indicated a positive sample or ignored a negative sample.
In the double-blind test, where only the computer knew where the correct samples were located, each row was also presented in reverse order, so that samples for which no decision was made were presented again. Then all unsearched samples were collected in new rows until a decision had been made for all samples.
A definitive diagnostic test for Parkinson’s disease (PD) remains elusive, so identifying potential biomarkers could facilitate diagnosis and timely intervention.
The two dogs that took part in the study were the Golden Retriever Bumper and the black Labrador Peanut.
Original Paper:
Editorial office: X-Press Journalistenbüro GbR
Gender note. The personal designations used in this text always refer equally to female, male and diverse persons. Double/triple references and gendered designations are avoided for the sake of better readability ected.
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