Innovative Test for Early Parkinson’s Paves Way for Patient’s Renewed Quality of Life

Ron Goldfinger, 68, of Boynton Beach, started feeling tremors in his left hand about seven years ago. What he didn’t realize at the time is that his tremors where a harbinger of Parkinson’s disease. He would undertake an innovative skin biopsy - at Marcus Neuroscience Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, part of Baptist Health -- that can detect a type of abnormal protein that is the pathological hallmark of Parkinson’s.
{TRANSCRIPT} - My name is Ron Goldfinger. I'm 68 years old and I live in Boynton Beach, Florida.
- Mr. Goldfinger came to my clinic seven years ago presenting with left hand tremor.
- I've had tremors. My hands were shaking. I thought nothing of it, but my father had tremors, so I figured, okay, I better go check this out to see what's going on.
- I determined that he was exhibiting features of essential tremor. Essential tremor patients must be assessed for Parkinsonian features and time after time on the serial visits, he did not exhibit any features other than the upper extremity tremors.
- Everything got slower on me, you know, it was just moving a little slower. The tremors got worse, even with the medication and holding hands with my wife is sometimes very difficult because all of a sudden the hands will just go. Dr. Husain and I felt time to see if I do have Parkinson's.
- We decided at that juncture to do a confirmatory test to make sure that there wasn't something that was being missed. We decided on doing an alpha synuclein skin biopsy.
- When I took the test, it was painless. I didn't feel the thing,
- If there is the presence of alpha synuclein, it is a confirmation that the patient is exhibiting the diagnosis that the movement disorder neurologist presumably had in mind.
- So we went through with the biopsy and came back positive.
- In Mr. Goldfinger, I did find only one positive skin biopsy. It's so fascinating because that simply was to mean that this patient was before my eyes going to develop Parkinson's disease. This test essentially served as a biomarker for me to clinically identify Parkinson's disease before it happened.
- The diagnosis came, it was perfect to let me know that I had it and now we have to move on away from extreme tremors to Parkinson's.
- There are oodles and oodles of research clinical trials that show that the quality of life of Parkinson's patients when captured early, is above those that are treated with medications later. I am proud to say I was one of the first neurologists in the community that was offered the ability to provide this test. So I feel it's a feather in the cap of Marcus Neuroscience Institute for us to be able to offer this test to our patients. And so as this disease progresses, there are different treatment. And at this juncture, we are currently in discussion regarding him having deep brain stimulation, which is incredible because deep brain stimulation would never be on our radar, given that his essential tremors aren't that bad.
- Dr. Husain, she's wonderful. She's very, very caring. But with me, she yells at me if I don't do what I'm supposed to do, and basically that's working out.
- He's going to get a quality of life at some point that will allow him to be with his family, have an active physical life, be able to travel and visit his daughters, and just be happy.
- I'm very grateful for what they've done for me over the past seven years. I get treated perfectly there. I'm not just a patient and the care that I get there when I'm there is amazing.
- [Camera Operator] Sorry, come back out.