Australian researchers created diagnostic software that can identify Parkinson's disease when patients are not presenting physical symptoms, according to a study published in Frontiers in Neurology.
The software assesses a patient's ability to draw a spiral by analyzing the speed and pressure of the pen. For the study, researchers used the software to assess the spirals of 27 Parkinson's disease patients and 28 control patients. The software identified the Parkinson's patients with a 93 percent accuracy rate.
"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," said Dinesh Kumar, PhD, a biomedical engineering professor at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, and one of the study's authors. "While we still have more research to do, we're hopeful that in [the] 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."
To watch a video about the new diagnostic tool, click here.
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