tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82826178402145177722024-03-12T22:03:47.537+00:00The PREDICT-PD BlogWelcome to the blog for the PREDICT-PD project. We are working to understand the risk factors for Parkinson's Disease and blogging about advances made in prediction and early detection of the disease.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11201109867191182613noreply@blogger.comBlogger1311125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-10989159474898551252020-07-02T11:11:00.000+01:002020-07-02T14:20:29.194+01:00Mild Parkinsonian Signs in a Community Population
One question that many of the PREDICT-PD participants ask me is “I am slower than I used to be, does it mean that I am getting Parkinson’s?”
I am interested in the early motor phases of Parkinson’s disease. They are subtle in appearance and usually start before the classical symptoms of Parkinson’s arise, which are slowness of movement, stiffness and tremor.
When studying subtle Cristina Simonethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04789323999565686055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-41374329136383782552020-04-17T12:19:00.000+01:002020-04-17T12:19:25.142+01:00Patients’ views on the ethical challenges of early PD detectionI read this paper this morning and thought it represented an important step forward in our understanding of this delicate issue
https://n.neurology.org/content/early/2020/04/14/WNL.0000000000009400
Many of us are working on risk factors of Parkinson's and early identification strategies, but what do patients with PD think about finding out they were at risk before the point of Alastair Noycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10175129398306429715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-50419935682548291202020-01-28T06:07:00.001+00:002020-01-28T06:07:55.971+00:00NEW Research - Is Parkinson's Genetic?? - Penetrance of Parkinson's Disease in LRRK2 Carriers Is Modified by a Polygenic Risk Score.Here is a nice paper by colleagues from the International PD Genomics Consortium (IPDGC)...
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/mds.27974
One question I frequently get asked is "doctor, please tell me, is it genetic?"... I am instantly caught in conflict between offering swift reassurance because I know what people really mean is "will I pass this on to my children?" OR a&Alastair Noycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10175129398306429715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-51409531795375909392020-01-23T18:04:00.001+00:002020-01-23T18:04:36.927+00:00NEW Research - Motor complications in Parkinson's disease: 13‐year follow‐up of the CamPaIGN cohortBack on the blog for the first time in a long time...
This marks another NY resolution to speak and flag more about the research that I/we think is interesting or important in the early identification or prediction of PD. In addition, we like to mention good quality clinical and genetic studies that tell us more about PD in general (not just prediction and early identification).&Alastair Noycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10175129398306429715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-39298436504147766882019-08-06T15:38:00.001+01:002019-08-06T15:38:11.035+01:00Salbutamol and PD riskRecently at one of our movement disorders meeting we began to discuss whether people with PD should be prescribed salbutamol. Salbutamol is a drug that has been used to treat asthma and COPD (a smoking related breathing disorder) for a long time. There has been lots of interest in Salbutamol because in epidemiological studies it appears to be protective against developing PD.
Salbutamol works byAaron Ben-Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833787330306119489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-7861737268489265712019-06-27T12:59:00.000+01:002019-06-27T12:59:02.767+01:00You are what you eat
You are what you eat!
It is a rare day that reading a scientific report of basic research makes the hairs on my neck stand up, but today is one such day.
An article published in the prestigious journal Neuroncarries the rather dry title “Transneuronal propagation of pathologic α-synuclein from the gut to the brain models Parkinson’s disease”. In their research the authors atR_Reeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06185772039972497541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-73304499290632171322019-04-15T11:30:00.002+01:002019-04-15T11:30:19.273+01:00More PD genes to discover? Epidemiological studies involving islands have a long and proud history; they always provide fascinating reading and food for thought. In the Faroe islands there were no reported cases of Multiple Sclerosis until 1943 when british troops occupied the islands. After this there was an epidemic of 21 cases. This pattern led to researchers hypothesising that british troops introduced asymptomatic Aaron Ben-Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833787330306119489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-23142474387219518962019-03-22T11:02:00.001+00:002019-03-22T11:02:56.482+00:00Smelling Parkinson'sIn the news this week you might have seen a perplexing story about a lady who can smell Parkinson's! Her husband was diagnosed with Parkinson's and she noticed a strange smell. She only connected the dots when she attended a Parkinson's UK support group and was suddenly surrounded by the smell.
This is not the first report of people being able to smell diseases. Patients with Type 1 diabetes Aaron Ben-Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833787330306119489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-5921768038341446602019-03-18T12:10:00.003+00:002019-03-19T12:06:04.391+00:00Crying out for a new biomarkerThe hunt for a biomarker for Parkinson's has led researchers to investigate a lot of different bodily fluids and techniques! A biomarker is a test that can diagnose Parkinson's, at the moment the only way to diagnose Parkinson's is by using your eyes and your ears. Previously people have tested blood, CSF (the fluid around your brain), skin, saliva, MRI scans, skin samples and even samples of Aaron Ben-Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833787330306119489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-70438341245040118072019-03-06T16:32:00.002+00:002019-03-07T09:33:50.472+00:00PLAIN ENGLISH: Organ transplants and risk of Parkinson's
This is another interesting study borne out of large USA health
insurance databases (Medicare database). The team from Washington noticed, whilst
using the same data to see if they could identify people at high risk of
Parkinson’s, that people with Parkinson’s were less likely to have received an
organ transplant than someone without Parkinson’s. This implies that people who
have had organ Aaron Ben-Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833787330306119489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-63768108305507726822019-03-01T11:35:00.003+00:002019-03-01T11:59:32.533+00:00The Parkinson’s Drug Trial: A Miracle Cure?
I’m sure many of you have seen the programme about a landmark Parkinson’s study, that was aired on the BBC last night (28th February 2019). It is a very well-produced fly-on-the-wall documentary that follows the investigators, inventors and some participants that have pioneered a truly ‘disruptive’ trial. If you haven’t seen it, stop reading and watch now (UK readers only).
R_Reeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06185772039972497541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-57907792312783091802019-02-26T06:26:00.001+00:002019-02-26T06:26:23.641+00:00PLAIN ENGLISH - Risk scoring for future Parkinson's in General Practice Records
It has been a quiet month on the blog, but it is a consequence of us working hard, rather than having too much leisure time 😇
In this post we are looking at some of our own work, led by Professor Anette Schrag from the PREDICT-PD study.
Here Anette and colleagues looked at routinely collected data from General Practice medical records. They identified >8000 people who had been Alastair Noycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10175129398306429715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-71909991369192001472019-01-31T16:24:00.002+00:002019-01-31T16:24:36.436+00:00A horse from our own stable: In memory of Tom IsaacsWe are delighted that one of our reviews has been published by the European Journal of Neuroscience: The Prodromes of Parkinson's.
This article is part of a special edition dedicated to the memory of Tom Isaacs. He was a shining light in the Parkinson's community. Having Parkinson's himself, he grew frustrated with the slow progress of research, and set up his own charity - The Cure Parkinson'sR_Reeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06185772039972497541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-20987253098864279582019-01-29T12:51:00.000+00:002019-01-29T12:51:20.055+00:00HousekeepingDear reader,
Unfortunately we've been targeted by a spam bot. We have deleted over 2000 spam messages and we apologise if we have inadvertently deleted any of your genuine messages in the process.
We have also changed the settings to reduce the amount of spam messages that are displayed.
Thank you for your understanding.
Please can we take this opportunity to thank you for your R_Reeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06185772039972497541noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-69319832877692005042019-01-23T17:22:00.002+00:002019-01-23T17:45:58.982+00:00A scan to predict dementia?
We know that Parkinson's is caused by damage to a small area at the base of the brain known as the Substantia Nigra, which contains cells that produce the chemical messenger dopamine. However, this is not the entire picture, and we believe that other brain structures and chemicals may be involved in causing the variety of different symptoms we see in patients.
One of the key questions annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14747754197671628848noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-47745403143336977962019-01-18T16:56:00.000+00:002019-01-18T16:56:55.103+00:00Great Debates
While there are many great debates happening this week in the UK, perhaps the most interesting happened at today’s biannual meeting of the Association of British Neurologists Movement Disorders Special Interest Group, held in the beautiful Oxford Town Hall. The opening session of the meeting was a debate between two giants of the international Parkinson’s world: Professor Donald Grosset from R_Reeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06185772039972497541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-55542922841759466782019-01-15T07:12:00.000+00:002019-01-15T07:12:08.071+00:00PLAIN ENGLISH: Gout and the risk of Parkinson's disease in older adultsFirst blog post of the year from me and, after feedback from literally everyone, I will be making a concerted effort to make them easy (easier) to understand. I can't get rid of the science I'm afraid... after all this is a research blog. But I (and we) can make bigger efforts to keep the focus on predicting Parkinson's, the PREDICT-PD study (predictpd.com) and related projects.
Alastair Noycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10175129398306429715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-9641309254899137662019-01-14T12:21:00.001+00:002019-01-14T12:21:54.707+00:00The hard milesHappy new year to you all. I hope you have had a good start to the year.
2018 was a busy year for us. In this map, we have highlighted all the participants we have visited at their homes. The red markers are our participants with idiopathic anosmia (smell loss) and the blue markers are regular members of the Predict-PD study. Between us we have travelled literally thousands of miles.
The R_Reeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06185772039972497541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-56311947084371168982018-12-24T09:13:00.000+00:002018-12-24T09:24:51.358+00:00A few personal thoughts to round the year off.At Predict-PD Towers we have had a busy and successful year. We have rebuilt the website from scratch, taking the opportunity to really review all the questions in the surveys, and select the very best questions to help us answer our research questions. We have pioneered new techniques that are now included in the website, including an online trailmaking task and making the tap-test even better. R_Reeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06185772039972497541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-56306504739050819162018-12-20T14:18:00.000+00:002018-12-20T14:20:19.449+00:00Gout again.. and is work affected by early Parkinson's?
After my positive blog-post on uric acid a while ago, we have another reminder that unfortunately in research things are often not so simple, especially when moving from observational findings to affecting real-world changes. We are ending the year with another negative trial in Parkinson's - it's recently been announced that the trial of urate-elevating drug Inosine is ending early as the annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14747754197671628848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-76853852799852953412018-12-06T16:53:00.000+00:002018-12-06T16:53:17.438+00:00Motivation to exerciseExercise is known to have many benefits to people with and without Parkinsons. In Parkinsons it is known to improve slowness of movement, balance, mood, memory and quality of life. There is also some evidence that it might slow down the progression of the disease. So we know that exercise is good for people with Parkinsons, but we still aren't sure why.
One of the theories is that exercise mightAaron Ben-Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833787330306119489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-62547902084117558322018-11-18T22:58:00.000+00:002018-11-18T22:58:40.432+00:00The prodromes of Parkinson's Following on nicely from our last post, we are delighted to publicise our latest peer-reviewed publication.
This will come out in a special edition of the European Journal of Neuroscience, dedicated to the memory of Tom Isaacs. Tom was the founder and leader of the Cure Parkinson's Trust - a truly dynamic leader and a real disruptive presence (in all the right ways) within Parkinson's R_Reeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06185772039972497541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-91553018094485403542018-11-16T17:04:00.002+00:002018-11-16T17:05:13.277+00:00Do thinking problems develop before Parkinson's?
Many of the blog posts from the PREDICT team have highlighted the fact that Parkinson's affects many more aspects of life than just movement. Whilst the core features are still thought of as slowing down, becoming stiff and developing tremor, problems such as constipation, sleep difficulties and thinking and memory problems are all commonly seen.
The thinking problems may even be presentannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14747754197671628848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-74820692378095113862018-11-14T22:36:00.002+00:002018-11-14T22:37:16.748+00:00Magnetic resonance T1w/T2w ratio: A parsimonious marker for Parkinson's disease
I love it when something simple yet really effective...
We are in an era when imaging and laboratory investigations are ever more complex and expensive, and here we have a wonderful study showing that a very simple, cheap and easily-obtained ratio from an MRI scan can be used to accurately diagnose Parkinson's. Importantly the researchers were not satisfied with showing this Alastair Noycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10175129398306429715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282617840214517772.post-82131000455011875282018-11-09T10:52:00.001+00:002018-11-09T10:59:32.837+00:00Why does Parkinson's cause constipation? When people think of Parkinson's disease they often think of tremors however often people who actually have Parkinson's are more concerned by the symptoms that are not to do with movement and tremors (non-motor symptoms). The commonest of these symptoms are constipation, tiredness, difficulty sleeping, anxiety and needing to pass urine multiple times at night. These symptoms are not always as Aaron Ben-Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833787330306119489noreply@blogger.com0