Syn-One Test® Provides Early Parkinson’s Diagnosis for Florida Man
When Ron Goldfinger of Boynton Beach, Florida, started to experience tremors in his left hand he didn’t think much about it, but recalling that his father also had tremors, he decided it was time to see a doctor.
Sameea Husain Wilson, DO, director of Movement Disorder Neurology for Marcus Neuroscience Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, diagnosed Mr. Goldfinger with essential tremor and continued to assess his condition. Even with medication, the tremors got worse over time. “We decided at that juncture to do a confirmatory test to make sure there wasn’t something that was being missed. We decided on doing an alpha-synuclein skin biopsy,” says Dr. Husain.
The results of Mr. Goldfinger’s Syn-One Test came back positive for the presence of phosphorylated alpha-synuclein, supporting a diagnosis of early Parkinson’s disease. With this information in hand, Dr. Husain was able her to shift her focus from treating essential tremor to treating Parkinson’s. “This test essentially served as a biomarker for me to clinically identify Parkinson’s disease before it happened,” she explains.
Research shows that patients with Parkinson’s who are treated early have a better quality of life than those who are treated after their disease has progressed to a more severe stage. The positive Syn-One Test results allowed Dr. Husain to assess Mr. Goldfinger’s Parkinson’s in the beginning stages and allowed her to recommend a treatment that would not have been available to Mr. Goldfinger with a diagnosis of essential tremor.
