PARKINSON'S disease could soon be diagnosed with little more than a pen and paper.
RMIT University researchers have created software that can diagnose the disease even when there are no physical symptoms. All the patient has to do is draw a spiral.
The trials had an accuracy rate of 93 per cent, giving researchers hope it could one day be used as a standard screening test to spot the condition early.
Chief investigator Dinesh Kumar said many treatment options are only effective in the early stages of the disease.
"Pushing back the point at which treatment can start is critical because we know that by the time someone starts to experience tremors or rigidity, it may already be too late," Professor Kumar said.
"We've long known that Parkinson's disease affects the writing and sketching abilities of patients, but efforts to translate that insight into a reliable assessment method have failed - until now.
"The customised software we've developed records how a person draws a spiral and analyses the data in real time. The only equipment you need to run the test is a pen, paper and a large drawing tablet."
Professor Kumar said the new tool can even calculate the severity of a patient's condition.
PhD researcher Poonam Zham and her team conducted tests with 62 people with Parkinson's disease, though half had no visible symptoms and half were mildly to severely affected.
The groups were given different dexterity tasks such as writing a sentence, writing individual lettters, writing a sequence of letters and sketching a guided Archimedean spiral.
The researchers found the spiral was the most reliable and easiest for participants to complete.
"While we still have more research to do, we're hopeful that in future doctors or nurses could use our technology to regularly screen their patients for Parkinson's, as well as help those living with the disease to better manage their condition," Professor Kumar said.
Parkinson's disease affects 80,000 Australians and an estimated 10 million people worldwide. It's the second most common neurological disease in the country after dementia.
The results were published in Frontiers in Neurology.
