From small to tall: breed-varied household pet dogs can be trained to detect Parkinson's Disease

From small to tall: breed-varied household pet dogs can be trained to detect Parkinson's Disease
Animal Cognition; Lisa Holt, Samuel V Johnston; 10/24
Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a clinically diagnosed disease that carries a reported misdiagnosis rate of 10-20%. Recent scientific discoveries have provided evidence of volatile organic compounds in sebum that are unique to patients with PD. Twenty-three canines of varying breeds, ages, and environmental backgrounds were included. For this two-year reporting period, when averaged as a group, the 23 dogs were 89% sensitive and 87% specific to olfactory distinction between PD-positive and PD-negative human donor samples. Study findings support the application of companion dogs, trained with force-free, reward-based methodologies, for the detection of PD-positive and PD-negative samples under controlled conditions.