In one of my previous blogs I had mentioned that it is difficult to diagnose Parkinson’s disease in Parkinson’s patients without the tremors. We will talk about it, but later. Before that it is important to talk a little about Parkinson’s diagnosis.
There is no single specific test or examination for the diagnosis of Parkinson’s. There is no way to check for Parkinson’s, like blood pressure or diabetes. Hence, the process of diagnosis is complicated and time-consuming and prone to trial and error. Sometimes the symptoms are so obvious that they can be diagnosed with Parkinson’s right away. Ashwini Virkar had a one year old son when PD struck her at the age of 30. She was skeptical when it first happened. She went to many hospitals consulted many renowned neurologists to get their opinion. But the symptoms were so obvious that all the doctors were unanimous in their diagnosis. I feel that rather than not believing the neurologists, she hoped that at least one of the neurologists would say that it wasn’t Parkinson’s. But it did not happen.
The same happened with my husband. Our family physician diagnosed him immediately and referred us to a neurologist. We have no other proof other than the neurologist’s prescription stating that my husband is suffering from Parkinson’s. Some people say, “Didn’t you get an MRI done? How can this happen? We got it done. If you can understand PD without MRI, why did the doctor ask to get it done?” Then they begin to say that the doctors cheat too much, they force us to take many unneeded tests. Before making such allegations, the truth should be understood.
MRI is not a brain test to prove the absence of PD. Is it a tumor? Is it stroke? This is observed. Only those about whom the doctor has such suspicions are examined. And they are diagnosed with PD only when there are no other problems found in the brain.
Another difficulty in diagnosis is that there are other diseases with symptoms similar to Parkinson’s, such as in old age, fatigue, slight tremors, slow movements, loss of balance etc.
Tremors, slowness of movement, stiffness are the primary symptoms of Parkinson’s, they begin to show at the onset of Parkinson’s. So the diagnosis is easy. But, Parkinson’s has many secondary symptoms such as constipation, depression, restlessness, loss of balance, pain, inability to open the eyes, drooling, changes in handwriting, dizziness and some start with this secondary symptoms. So when the primary symptoms appear Parkinson’s is diagnosed. (Don’t be alarmed by the long list of symptoms. Not everyone has all of these symptoms.) These secondary symptoms can be seen in common people, so here the knowledge and experience of a neurologist comes to the test.
In the next chat we will look at examples of the onset of the disease from such a secondary symptoms. This information is based on what I understand from reading literature about Parkinson’s, listening to the lectures of the experts.