A team of doctors from the Neatherlands has found that asking a Parkinson’s patient whether he or she is still able to ride a bike is a more valuable tool than many diagnostic tests to determine whether the patient has standard Parkinson’s Disease or atypical Parkinson’s.
In a letter published in the Lancet medical journal in the UK, the team reported that only four per cent of those with standard Parkinson’s Disease were unable to ride a bike compare with more than half of those with the atypical form of Parkinson’s.
Atypical Parkinson’s is more likely to involve cognitive and memory problems in addition to the tremor associated with the standard form of the disease, and may require different treatment.
The letter published and signed by Drs Marjolein Aerts, Wilson Abdo, and Prof Bastiaan Bloem, of the Department of Neurology, in Parkinson Centre Nijmegen, Netherlands, said: “We suggest that the answer to one simple question—‘Can you still ride a bicycle?’—offers good diagnostic value for separating Parkinson’s disease from atypical parkinsonism.”
Read more in the Telegraph » Bike test holds key to Parkinson’s diagnosis: doctors – Telegraph.
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