MIAMI: Accurate diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, and the related disease “dementia with Lewy bodies,” can be difficult in the early stages of both conditions. While brain biopsies can be more accurate, the risk of complications has been considered too high. New research indicates that a biopsy of the submandibular gland can help identify the same pathology that is seen in the brain, providing some of the increased accuracy of brain biopsy, but not the increased risk.
Investigators had previously shown, first in autopsies and then with biopsies, that the submandibular gland, the saliva-producing gland in the neck, has the signature alpha-synuclein microscopic pathology of Parkinson’s disease and that the gland can be biopsied to provide an unambiguous confirmation of diagnosis…