The article that I have chosen is Early Detection of Parkinson’s disease through handwriting. The topic of this article is disorders and syndromes: Parkinson’s disease. The authors of this article are Sara Rosenblum, Margalit Samuel, Sharon Zlotnik, Llana Erikh, and Llana Schlesinger. The source I used to come to this article is sciencedaily.com.
Dr. Ilana Schlesinger, head of the Center for Movement Disorders and Parkinson's disease at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center and occupational therapists helped to conduct this experiment. Prof. Sara Rosenblum, of the University of Haifa’s Department of Occupational Therapy, initiated the study. She believed that identifying the changes in handwriting could lead to an early diagnosis of the illness.
During this study, they gathered forty participants, all adults with at least twelve years of schooling. Half of the participants healthy, and the other half known to be in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease (before motor signs are visible). They were instructed to write their names and a given address on a regular piece of paper that was placed on electronic tablet, while using a special pen that had pressure-sensitive sensors operated by the pen when it hits the writing surface. The number of parameters: writing form, time required, and the pressured exerted were compared using a computerized analysis. Once the results were in, it showed a great difference between the healthy and the patients. All subjects, except for one had their status correctly diagnosed. The patients with Parkinson’s disease wrote with less pressure on the surface and with smaller letters, taking longer to complete the task. Professor Rosenblum, a noticeable difference was the length of time the pen was in the air between writing each letter and word.
This article proves an effective way to notice if you have Parkinson’s disease at an early stage before motor signs are visible, through a person’s handwriting. Professor Rosenblum and Dr. Schlesinger conducted an experiment that consisted of adults who were asked to write their name and a given address down on a regular piece of paper. Upon doing so, the results showed difference and statuses were accurate for all but one. Dr. Schlesinger noticed that patience with the disease took longer to write down each word and letter. She believed that validating the findings in a broader study would allow this research to be used for a opening diagnosis of the disease in a safe manner. This test can be performed not only by doctors but also other professionals. Then later on, a patient can refer to a doctor for any more treatment and testing. Researchers are now using this method in a new experiment; they use handwriting to evaluate the degree of patients with Parkinson’s improved functioning after having brain pacemakers implanted.
After reading this article and then rereading it to get a better understanding, I came across a question that I would like to ask the scientist involved. I would like to know if the research or method they are using will also be effective for children or teens that are facing Parkinson’s?