>From the Sydney Morning Herald, September 7,1996:
Research gives hope to brain disease sufferers
By MELISSA SWEET, Medical Writer
Fifteen NSW (New South Wales, Australia) people whose lives were devastated by
Parkinson's disease have in death helped lead to a major scientific breakthrough
which will revolutionise understanding of the incurable disease.
The discovery, which will require medical textbooks to be rewitten, is expected
to reduce delays many sufferers face in having the disease diagnosed.
Eventually, it may bring new approaches to treatment.
Researchers at the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute and Westmead
Hospital have shown that Parkinson's involves an area of the brain previously
not suspected of playing an important role in the disease.
In a laborious study comparing the brains of 15 people who died with Parkinson's
disease with 13 other brains, the researchers found that the volume of the
hippocampus had shrunk by an average of a quarter in Parkinson's sufferers.
The finding was completely unexpected as the hippocampus ("seahorse" - it is
shaped like one's tail) is crucial for memory processing, and best known for
being damaged in Alzheimer's disease. Parkinson's was thought to involve only
the mid-brain.
The Parkinson's patients showed consistent shrinkage of the hippocampus
irrespective of whether they also had dementia.
Parkinson's Australia, a patient-support and fundraising group, yesterday
described the discovery as the most significant scientific advance in the
disease for a century. But medical experts were more circumspect.
The discovery, to be published in the international journal Dementia, will be
officially announced at a conference at Concord Hospital on Monday for
Parkinson's Awareness Week.
Dr Glenda Halliday - who did the study with colleagues Dr Kay Double, Dr Deborah
McRitchie, Dr Wayne Reid, Dr Mariese Hely and Associate Professor John Morris -
said the discovery opened up new field for Parkinson's research.
Dr Halliday, who paid tribute to people who had donated their brains to the NSW
Brain Bank, said the findings suggested Parkinson's, which affects an estimated
50,000 Australians, was more complex than previously realised. They helped
explain why symptoms - including stiff muscles, slowness of movement, tremors
and shuffling gait - varied so much between sufferers.
Professor Morris, the head of neurology at Westmead Hospital, said the discovery
also helped explain the recent realisation that the disease caused subtle but
important changes to memory and mood, and not just motor difficulties.
A spokesman for Parkinson's Australia, Mr Peter Dawkins, said the immediate
spin-off would be improved diagnosis by using magnetic resonance imaging to
check the hippocampuses of suspected sufferers.
"We are certainly heading towards a future where in five years there could be,
if not a cure, then a solid treatment for Parkinson's," he said.
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>From Bruce Wallace, brother of Ken 60/3
Sydney, Australia
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