Dogs trained to detect Parkinson’s disease using scent have shown remarkable accuracy in new research. In a double-blind trial, they identified skin swabs from people with Parkinson’s with up to 80% sensitivity and 98% specificity, even when other health conditions were present. The findings offer hope for a simple, non-invasive diagnostic method using biomarkers that appear long before traditional symptoms, potentially allowing earlier treatment and slowed disease progression.
The study did not present the dogs with samples from “years before” and did not have an accuracy of 98%. It had a sensitivity (percent of positive samples called positive) of 70% for one dog and 80% for the other. Their specificity (percent of negative samples called negative) was 90% and 98%.
Since there were 60 positive samples and 40 negative samples, their accuracies were 82% and 91%, respectively.
Not 98%. And with samples from patients currently diagnosed (or controls).