Parkinson’s Disease: Diagnosis and Tests

No specific test exists to diagnose Parkinson’s disease. A neurologist who specializes in diagnosing neurological disorders diagnoses Parkinson’s disease based on your signs & symptoms, a thorough neurological & physical examination, and medical history. 

The doctor may also recommend blood tests to check what’s the main reason for the cause of symptoms.

Apart from this, your doctor may recommend a specific single-photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) scan called a dopamine transporter scan (DaTscan) and other imaging tests such as MRI, ultrasound, and PET scans. Although, these tests aren’t much help in diagnosing Parkinson’s disease.

Your doctor may suggest regular follow-up appointments to evaluate the symptoms over time to diagnose Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson’s Disease Treatment: Medications & Treatment Procedures

Parkinson’s disease is incurable, but medications can help manage symptoms. In an aggressive scenario, your doctor may advise surgery. 

Your doctor may recommend a healthy lifestyle, advise balance and stretching physical therapy, and may refer to a speech-language pathologist to correct speech problems.

Your doctor may prescribe medications and they include:

• Carbidopa-Levodopa: Levodopa, an effective medication to cure Parkinson’s disease, goes into your brain and is converted into dopamine. Carbidopa protects levodopa from early conversion into dopamine outside your brain. Therefore, this combination is quite effective. There might be some side effects such as nausea or lightheadedness.
• Inhaled Carbidopa-Levodopa: The doctor feeds this medicine through a tube in an emollient form that goes into the small intestine. This medication infusion involves a surgical procedure to place the tube.
• Dopamine Agonists: These drugs don’t convert into dopamine, unlike levodopa. However, these drugs imitate dopamine effects in your brain. They have the same side effects as carbidopa-levodopa. Some additional symptoms are hallucination and compulsive behaviors.
• MAO B Inhibitors: Selegiline (Zelapar), rasagiline (Azilect) and safinamide (Xadago) are the main contents of this medication. It avoids the breakdown of brain dopamine by suppressing the brain enzyme monoamine oxidase B (MAO B). Nausea, insomnia, and headaches are some of its side effects.
• Catechol O-methyltransferase (COMT) inhibitors: Entacapone (Comtan) and opicapone (Ongentys) are the primary medications. It mildly prolongs the effects of levodopa therapy by blocking an enzyme that helps break down dopamine. Like every medicine, it has side effects as well such as involuntary movements (dyskinesia) due to enhanced levodopa therapy.
• Anticholinergics: This medication helps control the tremor effects that arise in Parkinson’s disease. However, the benefits are offset by some side effects such as impaired memory, dry mouth, constipation, impaired urination, confusion, and hallucinations.
• Amantadine: It is effective in early-stage Parkinson’s disease and provides short-term relief. Hallucinations, purple-mottling of the skin, and ankle swelling are some of its side effects.

Deep Brain Stimulation: Awake Surgery For Parkinson’s Disease Patients

Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is a neurosurgical procedure that involves implanting electrodes that produce electrical impulses to regulate abnormal impulses. The surgeon places a pacemaker-like device under the skin in the upper chest that controls the amount of stimulation.

Apart from Parkinson’s disease, DBS also treats several neurological conditions like:

• Epilepsy
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder
• Dystonia
• Tremors
• Dementia
• Cluster Headache
• Stroke Recovery
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Traumatic brain injury

Associated Risks with Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery

As DBS is major surgery, it involves creating small holes in the skull to implant the electrodes and device with batteries in the chest. Therefore, it comes with a bunch of risks and complications. They are:

• Onset of seizures
• Bleeding in the brain
• Misplacement of lead
• Nausea
• Heart problems
• Stroke
• Infection

This surgery won’t treat your disease completely, it may help relieve pain symptoms. Although the symptoms won’t go away completely, medications may still be required to treat some conditions. 

DBS isn’t a solution for everyone. Therefore, it is important to discuss with your doctor about life post-surgery.

Fighting Parkinson’s Disease With Lifestyle Changes

After diagnosis, make certain changes in your lifestyle to manage Parkinson’s disease easier.

• Healthy Eating: Intake of foods high in fiber and drink plenty of water to prevent constipation, a common problem in Parkinson’s disease. A balanced diet full of omega-3 fatty acids has proven to be beneficial as well.
• Exercise: Exercising increases your muscle strength, balance and reduces depression and anxiety. However, precautions need to be taken while exercising and should be done under your trainer’s supervision.
• Avoiding Falls: Parkinson’s disease has balance difficulties as one of its symptoms. In later stages, an individual becomes prone to fall off easily even by a small push. Therefore, an individual must avoid carrying stuff while walking, making a U-turn, or walking backward direction.

Consult an occupational therapist to make your life simpler and easier. 

Which Specialists Treat Parkinson’s Disease?

Parkinson’s disease is a complicated health condition that requires a skilled team of specialists to work together to ensure a quality of life. They are:

• Neurologists
• Neurosurgeons
• Physical Medicine
• Rehabilitation
• Occupational Therapists
• Counselors

Factors That Affect The Cost Of Parkinson’s Disease Treatment

Certain factors are responsible that may affect Parkinson’s Disease treatment costs in India:

• Type of hospital: super-specialty, multi-specialty, single-specialty
• Type of rooms: deluxe room, standard room, general room, single room, shared room, etc.
• Specialists fees
• Tests and diagnostic procedures including imaging tests
• Cost of surgery if required
• Medications
• Follow-up visits
• Cost of physical therapy

Why India for Parkinson’s Disease Treatment

India has several JCI (Joint Commission International) accredited hospitals that are well-known for their state-of-the-art infrastructure, highly skilled medical professionals and well-trained nursing staff. These medical services provide affordable healthcare services to patients across the globe. 

Medsurge India is a reputed and trusted health assistance partner that provides services in all major cities in the country. They have tie-ups with multiple super-specialty and multi-specialty hospitals across the country. MedSurge team makes sure that the patients get the best of healthcare.