Dogs can detect incurable disease years before signs appear with near 100% accuracy
Dogs are wonderful creatures and there is a reason they are often referred to as man's best friend. Most canines are loyal, affectionate, and there for you in times of hardship. And there is perhaps no tougher time than when you're ill.
Now, new research has uncovered an astounding fact about pooches that could change the way we approach Parkinson's disease in Scotland, of which around 13,000 people have been diagnosed, and the number is growing, according to Parkinson's UK.
Parkinson's disease is a condition in which parts of the brain become progressively damaged over many years, according to the NHS. The main symptoms are tremors, slow movement, and stiff and inflexible muscles.
A person with Parkinson's disease can also experience depression and anxiety, balance problems, loss of smell, insomnia, and memory problems. However, the new study has proved that people with Parkinson's disease have an odour that can be reliably detected from skin swabs by trained dogs.
In a double-blind trial, the animals identified skin swabs from people with Parkinson's with up to 80 per cent sensitivity and 98 per cent specificity, even when other health conditions were present.
The findings offer hope for a simple, non-invasive diagnostic method using biomarkers that appear long before traditional symptoms, potentially allowing earlier treatment and slowed disease progression.
"We are extremely proud to say that once again, dogs can very accurately detect disease," said Claire Guest, Medical Detection Dogs CEO and Chief Scientific Officer.
"There is currently no early test for Parkinson's disease and symptoms may start up to 20 years before they become visible and persistent leading to a confirmed diagnosis. Timely diagnosis is key as subsequent treatment could slow down the progression of the disease and reduce the intensity of symptoms."
The Medical Detection Dogs and the Universities of Bristol and Manchester research was published on July 15 in The Journal of Parkinson's Disease. The study's two dogs were Golden Retriever, Bumper and Black Labrador, Peanut.
Bumper and Peanut were trained by the charity, Medical Detection Dogs, to distinguish between sebum swabs from people with and without Parkinson's.
As mentioned, in a double blind trial, they showed sensitivity of up to 80 per cent and specificity of up to 98 per cent. And not only that - they also detected it in samples from patients who also had other health conditions.
The dogs were trained over a number of weeks on over 200 odour samples from individuals that had tested positive for PD and control samples from people who did not have the disease.
Samples were presented to the dogs on a stand system and the dogs were rewarded for correctly indicating a positive sample and for correctly ignoring a negative sample.
In the double-blind testing, meaning that only a computer knew where the correct samples were, each line was also presented in reverse order so that samples for which no decision was made were re-presented. Then any unsearched samples were collected together in new lines, until a decision had been made for all samples.
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A definitive diagnostic test for Parkinson's does not yet exist, so identification of potential biomarkers could help diagnosis and timely intervention.
Nicola Rooney, Associate Professor at Bristol Veterinary School and lead author, said: "Sensitivity levels of 70 per cent and 80 per cent are well above chance.
"I believe that dogs could help us to develop a quick non-invasive and cost-effective method to identify patients with Parkinson's disease."
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