[URL="http://abcnews.go.com/Health/researchers-investigate-woman-smell-parkinsons-disease/story?id=34681528"]http://http://abcnews.go.com/Health/researchers-investigate-woman-smell-parkinsons-disease/story?id=34681528[/URL]
[QUOTE]Researchers from the UK-based Parkinson's Foundation are hoping that one woman's powerful sense of smell will help them find a breakthrough for diagnosing patients with Parkinson's disease.
Twenty years ago Joy Milne noticed a specific kind of smell whenever her husband Les Milne was around.
"I’ve always had a keen sense of smell and I detected very early on that there was a very subtle change in how Les smelled," she said in a statement Thursday. "It’s hard to describe but it was a heavy, slightly musky aroma. I had no idea that this was unusual and hadn’t been recognised before."[/QUOTE]
They've done this with dogs and cancer. Generally some illnesses do make smells and hopefully we can make a method of detecting them via tests.
I read this the other day.. she detected 11 out of 12 in the trial as correct.. and the one that she got wrong turned out to have Parkinson's a few months later.
That's pretty amazing.
Very bizarre but I guess possible if Parkinson's somehow alters a metabolic pathway for something.
[QUOTE=Bradyns;48970133]I read this the other day.. she detected 11 out of 12 in the trial as correct.. and the one that she got wrong turned out to have Parkinson's a few months later.
That's pretty amazing.[/QUOTE]
tbh 12 is far too small a sample number
[QUOTE=Maloof?;48970344]tbh 12 is far too small a sample number[/QUOTE]
I believe he was saying that the 12 people that had parkinson's in the sample she detected as having it
[QUOTE=geel9;48970379]I believe he was saying that the 12 people that had parkinson's in the sample she detected as having it[/QUOTE]
It was 6 with, and 6 without.
She got 6 out of 6 on the ones with Parkinson's.
She got 5 out of 6 on the ones without Parkinson's.
It later turned out that the 1 she got wrong from the 'without' category actually had Parkinson's.
[QUOTE=Maloof?;48970344]tbh 12 is far too small a sample number[/QUOTE]
Sure.. but at least this gives basis for further research into the correlation.
Honestly, a 100% success rate on a sample of 12 is pretty astounding.
So this just proves another reason to to replicate the olfactory for machines to detect such complexities. I would assume once we have the sensor it's just a matter training it with a neural network.
Some people that work in the hospital claim they can smell diseases e.g. the flu, I never really doubted it
is this why old people smell bad
[QUOTE=Kigen;48970072]They've done this with dogs and cancer. Generally some illnesses do make smells and hopefully we can make a method of detecting them via tests.[/QUOTE]
Humans can do this as well...in a lesser extent.
Some people can smell something odd when someone with cancer is about to die in a couple of years. I can smell it, but I can't describe the smell at all.
[QUOTE=BenJammin';48990483]is this why old people smell bad[/QUOTE]
Nope. You're smelling the cleaning materials.
[QUOTE=Maloof?;48970344]tbh 12 is far too small a sample number[/QUOTE]
Well, it's about a 1/20 chance getting it right 12 times in a row was a coincidence
[QUOTE=Ylsid;48999666]Well, it's about a 1/20 chance getting it right 12 times in a row was a coincidence[/QUOTE]
It's actually 1 in 4096 chance of getting all 12 right by coincidence
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.