Trained dogs can detect the odor of Parkinson's disease

Abstract

A definitive diagnostic test for Parkinson's disease (PD) remains elusive, so identification of potential biomarkers can facilitate diagnosis and early intervention. Two dogs were trained to distinguish between dry skin swabs obtained from people with Parkinson's (PwP) and control participants. After 38-53 weeks of training on 205 samples, the dogs were tested in a double-blind trial using 60 control and 40 target (drug-naïve PwP) samples. They each showed high sensitivity (70% and 80%) and specificity (90% and 98%). This supports previous findings that dogs can be trained to reliably detect the odor of PD.