Yorkshire Post Today
Yorkshire team finds clues to wasting disease

05 September 2006

Mike Waites Health Correspondent

http://tinyurl.com/hxpmr

RESEARCHERS in Yorkshire have uncovered new evidence to help doctors improve the diagnosis Parkinson's disease. About one in 100 people over the age of 65 suffer from the disabling condition which leaves patients increasingly slow, stiff and shaky. But diagnosis can be difficult and one in five cases is confused with a much rarer condition known as multiple system atrophy (MSA). A team in Sheffield has been studying levels of iron in the brains of sufferers and describes as "promising" research findings which could lead to a diagnostic technique to distinguish between the two conditions.

Using advanced imaging techniques, they have discovered that people with Parkinson's have higher levels of iron in their brains than non-sufferers, but amounts in people with MSA are much greater. Iron is essential for a number of processes in the brain but higher levels are believed to be damaging.

Prof Paul Griffiths, who is based at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, said: "The most significant finding so far is that there is a clear difference in the amounts of brain iron, and the parts of the brain in which it occurs, between people with Parkinson's and those with multiple system atrophy.

"That is very exciting because previously it has been very difficult to distinguish between the two."

Researchers looked at whether raised levels of iron were a cause of the disease or an effect of it.

The research was funded by a £66,000 grant from the charity Action Medical Research.

Here's a dumb question, but how do they check the amount of iron in the brain?
mama

mama, my mother always told me there are no dumb questions!!

I will see if I can find an answer to your question...which is a good one.