Cute dogs and Parkinson’s detection study

Medical Detection Dogs, in collaboration with the Oxford Parkinson’s Disease Centre, Manchester University and Edinburgh University, has been working on a ground-breaking proof of principle study which has determined that dogs can detect Parkinson’s, possibly many years before symptoms start to show.

The next phase of their research is now underway and will focus on early detection of the disease from sweat samples collected from early-stage and pre-diagnosis participants.

This is where they need your help.

The team will be visiting the Centre at the end of the month to talk in more depth about the study and how you can get involved. In simple terms though, this is how.

1. Come to the Centre on Wednesday 26 July or Friday 28 July, from 10am – 12noon, and speak to a member of the team from Medical Detection Dogs.
2. They will talk you through the volunteer information sheet and help you complete the consent form and health questionnaire.
3. They will give you a testing kit to take home with you.
4. Simply rub a piece of gauze on your skin 3-5 times, one piece on your face and the other on your back (they’ll provide full instructions!).
5. The sample is best collected before your morning shower or wash and please pop the gloves on first.
6. Seal each piece of gauze in the correct bag (they are labelled FACE and BACK).
7. Post the sample bags back to Medical Detection Dogs within 24 hours of taking the swabs (they’ll provide pre-paid postage envelopes).
8. THANK YOU! You have played an important role in helping them train their Parkinson’s detection dogs before trial.

Need more time to think about it? Don’t worry! Just leave your email address with one of the team and they’ll follow up with you.

What makes their visit to the Centre even more exciting is that they will also be bringing some very special guests, Parkinson’s detection dogs, Peanut and Bumper (pictured above), who will be demonstrating how they find the odour of Parkinson’s among samples.

The study will seek to determine if dogs can detect Parkinson’s before the onset of, or progression of, early Parkinson’s symptoms.

The results of the dog decisions will then be compared to chemical analysis of the same samples. From this, they hope to see how early dogs can detect Parkinson’s, allowing for earlier diagnosis and earlier intervention.

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