A news story from Boston reports that Brigham and Women's Hospital is working to develop a blood test for Parkinson's disease. The doctors there have been developing a test that measures gene markers for Parkinson's disease.
There is not a widely accepted x-ray, MRI, or blood test that doctors can give to test for Parkinson's disease. However, there are efforts to develop such a test.
Past posts discussed an experimental blood test that uses neuromelanin to detect Parkinson's, as well as another type of scan, the SPECT scan, that may diagnose Parkinson's disease. Yet another test detects alpha-synuclein using a blood test.
I am already diagnosed with Parkinson's. Why would I care about a test?
Many people are diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, but later learn that they have an illness that is similar to Parkinson's disease. Neurologists call these illnesses Parkinsonisms or Parkinson's plus syndromes. You can read more about them in the story, It's Not Parkinson's , It's Parkinsonism or Parkinson's-Plus.
Sources:
Boston Business Journal, January 2008
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, January 2007