A SIMPLE blood test could help doctors distinguish Parkinson's disease from similar disorders, a new study suggests.
Until now, patients have had to undergo painful spinal fluid tests to determine whether symptoms are caused by Parkinson's or similar neurological conditions known as atypical parkinsonism disorders (APD).
But experts at Sweden's Lund University have found a protein in the blood which they say is an accurate marker of the disease.
Around 70,000 people in Australia are living with Parkinson's disease, a neurological disorder that can cause tremors, slow movements and muscle rigidity and trouble balancing.
Other symptoms include depression, insomnia, anxiety, fatigue and constipation.
Many doctors cannot tell whether a patient has Parkinson's disease or APD.
Study author Oskare Hansson said identifying the diseases early is important because the life expectancy and treatments differ dramatically between Parkinson's and APDs.
"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," said Dr Hansson.
He said people while APDs are rare they generally progress much faster are are more likely to be the cause of death that Parkinson's disease, so early identification is crucial.
For the study, the team looked at 504 people from the UK and Sweden including healthy people and those who had been living with Parkinson's or APDs for up to six years".
"Our findings are exciting because when Parkinson's or an atypical parkinsonism disorder is suspected one simple blood test will help a physician to give their patient a more accurate diagnosis," said Dr Hansson.
He said one limit of nerve protein testing is that it does not distinguish between the different APDs, but doctors can look for other symptoms and signs to distinguish between those diseases.
Dr Hansson's research was published in the medical journal Neurology.
