Diagnosing neurogeneration: a real brain teaser!

Joy Milne, a ‘super-smeller’ from Edinburgh, noticed an unusual musky smell on her husband Les, 12 years before he developed Parkinson’s disease (PD). This chance finding suggested that skin chemicals may be altered in PD. We performed a large study analysing skin swabs of Parkinson’s disease and control participants across the UK. Our results demonstrate altered skin chemicals in PD which we hope will enable us to develop a simple skin swab test for PD. I will tell the amazing story of Joy and how her nose may lead to improved treatments in PD.

The influence of culture on any diagnostic test is significant but it’s more so for dementia tests because of the questions asked. Questions relying, sometimes solely, on a person’s culture. This talk explores flaws in tests used in services to detect dementia which can mean an incorrect diagnosis. From the obvious to the subtle, the ways in which culture affects if we are able to answer questions and how, will be explained. We will question what culture means, differences between cultural understanding and acceptability, and how informed methods can be used to develop more inclusive tests.