Skin Test May Aid in Diagnosis of Alzheimers, Parkinsons

Someday, it may be possible with a skin test to positively diagnose someone suspected of having dementia.

The test, developed by researchers in Mexico, also is able to detect abnormal proteins that are specific to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

According to the group Alzheimers Disease International, more than 44 million people around the world suffer from Alzheimers, which robs mostly elderly people of their short-term memory. Eventually, the disorder leads to death.

It is the most common form of dementia. But there are other forms of progressive brain disease, such as vascular dementia, which mimics the symptoms of early stage Alzheimers and causes cognitive problems. Unlike those with Alzheimers, patients can live for years with vascular dementia.

Another progressive neurological disease that can be hard to diagnose in its early stages is the movement disorder Parkinsons disease.

Now, researchers at Mexico's University of San Luis Potosi have developed a way to diagnose Alzheimers and other cognitive disorders, using a small piece of a patient's skin.

Investigators are looking for abnormally high levels of particular proteins that are present in both brain tissue and, it turns out, in skin cells.

Neurologist Ildefonso Rodriguez-Leyva led a study using skin biopsies to diagnose people with various forms of dementia.

The skin is very closely related with the neurological system because they both have the same origin," Rodriguez-Leyva said. "Then we decided to look for the possibility to find the proteins that were abnormal in the brain in the skin. And we find them. Skin for us was wonderful.

Twenty people with a confirmed diagnosis of Alzheimers were found to have abnormally high levels of a protein called tau in a 4-millimeter skin sample.

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Skin Test May Aid in Diagnosis of Alzheimers, Parkinsons