(Press-News.org) An image similar in shape to a Swallow's tail has been identified as a new and accurate test for Parkinson's disease. The image, which depicts the healthy state of a group of cells in the sub-region of the human brain, was singled out using 3T MRI scanning technology – standard equipment in clinical settings today.
The research was led by Dr Stefan Schwarz and Professor Dorothee Auer, experts in neuroradiology in the School of Medicine at The University of Nottingham and was carried out at the Queen's Medical Centre in collaboration with Dr Nin Bajaj, an expert in Movement Disorder Diseases at the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.
The findings have been published in the open access academic journal PLOS one.
The work builds on a successful collaboration with Professor Penny Gowland at the Sir Peter Mansfield Magnetic Resonance Centre at The University of Nottingham.
'The 'Swallow Tail' Appearance of the Healthy Nigrosome – A New Accurate Test of Parkinson's Disease: A Case-Control and Retrospective Cross-Sectional MRI Study at 3T' – describes how the absence of this imaging sign can help to diagnose Parkinson's disease using standard clinical Magnetic Resonance Scanners.
Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder which destroys brain cells that control movement. Around 127,000 people in the UK have the disease. Currently there is no cure but drugs and treatments can be taken to manage the symptoms.
The challenges of diagnosing Parkinson's
Until now diagnosing Parkinson's in clinically uncertain cases has been limited to expensive nuclear medical techniques. The diagnosis can be challenging early in the course of the condition and in tremor dominant cases. Other non-licensed diagnostic techniques offer a varying range of accuracy, repeatability and reliability but none of them have demonstrated the required accuracy and ease of use to allow translation into standard clinical practice.
Using high resolution, ultra high filed 7T magnetic resonance imaging the Nottingham research team has already pinpointed the characteristic pathology of Parkinson's with structural change in a small area of the mid brain known as the substantia nigra. The latest study has shown that these changes can also be detected using 3T MRI technology which is accessible in hospitals across the country. They subsequently coined the phrase the 'swallow tail appearance' as an easy recognizable sign of the healthy appearing substantia nigra which is lost in Parkinson's disease. A total of 114 high-resolution scans were reviewed and in 94 per cent of cases the diagnosis was accurately made using this technique.
New findings give new hope
Dr Schwarz said: "This is a breakthrough finding as currently Parkinson's disease is mostly diagnosed by identifying symptoms like stiffness and tremor. Imaging tests to confirm the diagnosis are limited to expensive nuclear medical techniques which are not widely available and associated with potentially harmful ionizing radiation.
"Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (no ionizing radiation involved and much cheaper than nuclear medical techniques) we identified a specific imaging feature which has great similarity to a tail of a swallow and therefore decided to call it the 'swallow tail sign'. This sign is absent in Parkinson's disease."
INFORMATION:
The research was funded by The University of Nottingham, the Sarah Matheson Trust, and the Medical Research Council. Dr Schwarz's Academic Clinical Lectureship is funded by the National Institute for Health Research UK.
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis.
'Tell-tail' MRI image diagnosis for Parkinson's disease
2014-04-29
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
CWRU researchers profile women's employment, caregiving workloads, effort and health
2014-04-29
A study from the Case Western Reserve University nursing school provides a profile of women with the dual responsibilities of full-time paid work and unpaid care for an elderly family member.
"We often hear caregivers talk about 'how much time and effort it takes' to provide care for their family members or neighbors," said Evanne Juratovac, PhD, RN (GCNS-BC), assistant professor of nursing at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing and the study's lead researcher, "so we examined the experience of doing the workload on these women caregivers as the 'workers."
She ...
NAI Fellows paper on patents and commercialization for tenure, career advancement in PNAS
2014-04-29
TAMPA, Fla. (April 29, 2014) – When six university leaders took the stage at the 2013 Annual Conference of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), held just over a year ago at the University of South Florida, they began a national conversation on changing the academic culture to recognize faculty patents and commercialization activity toward tenure and promotion. That conversation, according to NAI president Paul R. Sanberg, was long overdue.
The question posed to the panel, "Would Thomas Edison Receive Tenure," was answered with a clear "yes" and the paper that resulted, ...
Girls make higher grades than boys in all school subjects, analysis finds
2014-04-29
WASHINGTON -- Despite the stereotype that boys do better in math and science, girls have made higher grades than boys throughout their school years for nearly a century, according to a new analysis published by the American Psychological Association.
"Although gender differences follow essentially stereotypical patterns on achievement tests in which boys typically score higher on math and science, females have the advantage on school grades regardless of the material," said lead study author Daniel Voyer, PhD, of the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada. ...
Experiment on Earth demonstrates effect observed in space
2014-04-29
Streaming jets of high-speed matter produce some of the most stunning objects seen in space. Astronomers have seen them shooting out of young stars just being formed, X-ray binary stars and even the supermassive black holes at the centers of large galaxies.
Theoretical explanations for what causes those beam-like jets have been around for years, but now an experiment by French and American researchers using extremely high-powered lasers offers experimental verification of one proposed mechanism for creating them.
"This research is an example of how laboratory experiments ...
Newly identified 'universal' property of metamagnets may lead to everyday uses
2014-04-29
A new physics discovery made by a University of Virginia-led team may lead to more efficient refrigerators, heat pumps and airport scanners, among many possible uses –perhaps within a decade.
The team of physicists and materials scientists have discovered a universal law governing the magnetic properties of metamagnets – metal alloys that can undergo dramatic increases in magnetization when a small external magnetic field is applied, such as from a permanent magnet or an electromagnet.
The scientists have discovered that the magnetic effect of apparently all metamagnets ...
Anti-bullying policy must focus on all of society
2014-04-29
Policy to reduce bullying in the schoolyard needs to span all levels of society, say researchers from the University of Warwick, who warn that socioeconomic status is not a reliable indicator of whether a child is likely to become a bully.
Up to one third of children are involved in bullying, and a growing body of evidence has shown that bullying is a significant public health concern, which can cause long lasting health and social problems.
The new review, published in the American Journal of Public Health, advises that policy makers should be wary of assuming that ...
Higher calcium intake may reduce body fat, mitigating genetic risk for diabetes
2014-04-29
SAN DIEGO (April 29, 2014) – As the number of people with type 2 diabetes continues to rise and its toll increases, scientists are scrambling to unravel the complex genetic and lifestyle factors behind the disease. A new study finds that African American children with a genetic predisposition to diabetes may be able to reduce their risk by getting the USDA-recommended dose of calcium.
"Even though life expectancy for people with diabetes has gone up, the disease has a significant impact on quality of life, so finding ways to prevent people from developing diabetes is ...
More coral babies staying at home on future reefs
2014-04-29
Researchers have found that increasing ocean temperatures due to climate change will soon see reefs retaining and nurturing more of their own coral larvae, leaving large reef systems less interconnected and potentially more vulnerable.
"We found that at higher temperatures more coral larvae will tend to stay on their birth reef," says the lead author of the study published today, Dr Joana Figueiredo from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (Coral CoE) at James Cook University.
"This is good news in an otherwise cloudy picture for isolated reefs, because ...
Stem cell therapies look promising for heart disease
2014-04-29
Stem cell therapies work as a complement to standard treatments, potentially cutting the number of deaths after a year, suggests evidence from the latest Cochrane review: Stem cell therapy for chronic ischaemic heart disease and congestive heart failure. Taking stem cells from a patient's bone marrow and injecting them into their damaged heart may be an effective way to treat heart disease.
The new review, published today in The Cochrane Library, uses data involving 1,255 people from 23 randomised controlled trials, where all participants received standard treatments. ...
Microfluidic technology reveals potential biomarker for early pancreatic cancer
2014-04-29
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Cancer cells are on the move in the bloodstream in the very early stage of pancreatic cancer, and can be detected before cancer is diagnosed, according to research by the University of Michigan Health System.
In a study of 51 patients, researchers used a state-of-the art microfluidic device to capture circulating pancreas epithelial cells in 33 percent of patients with early pancreatic lesions and no clinical diagnosis of cancer.
The findings, published in Gastroenterology, suggest that circulating pancreas cells (CPCs) seed the bloodstream before ...