A new AI-powered test using earwax samples detects Parkinson’s Disease with 94% accuracy, offering a breakthrough in early diagnosis.
United States: Early diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease may be important in reducing the rate of progression of the disease and positively changing the life of the patient.
It is precisely what a new test based on a mere sample of ear wax of a person is about to do.
More about the news
Although an approximate figure of 10 million individuals live with Parkinson’s Disease, there is no conclusive test to detect the disease in its initial stages of development.
Doctors cannot use the method of cognitive and motor skill examination to detect a person with Parkinson to be precise, and there is an element of bias there, newatlas.com reported.
Ear Wax Reveals Parkinson’s Disease Biomarkers
— Neuroscience News (@NeuroscienceNew) June 18, 2025
Researchers have identified a new way to screen for Parkinson’s disease using the scent of ear wax.
Ear wax, which is rich in sebum and shielded from environmental factors, contains volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that change… pic.twitter.com/F6HqREvEMV
Other tests encompass imaging that will not show a patient has Parkinson’s but rather eliminate the chances of other conditions and the response of Parkinson’s medication in which individuals who may not be carrying the disease take a prescription that is aimed at fighting its effects.
Development in the diagnosis of the disease is occurring, though. Even as far back as earlier this year, we had reported how an easy eye exam may result in the condition being detected early.
Among the most encouraging methods of early detection of Parkinson’s has something to do with the manner in which the condition affects the oily skin covering of our body, which is the sebum.
In another 2021 study, a group of scientists analyzed sebum samples obtained with non-invasive skin swabs and identified 10 biomarkers that were either increased or reduced in Parkinson’s patients.
Based on the data, the researchers were in a position to classify individuals who had the condition or those who did not, with an accuracy of 85 percent.
Realizing that our skin is subject to the environmental conditions and the environment is capable of changing the composition of our skin, but harnessing the ability of sebum to identify early signs of Parkinsonian diseases, scientists, primarily at various universities and research institutes across China, resorted to the alternative source of it: ear wax.
The researchers involved 209 adults (108 with Parkinson’s disease) in their study and swabbed their ears, newatlas.com reported.
Having traced the wax by means of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, they were able to detect that there were four various volatile organic compounds(VOC) that were quite deficient in patients with Parkinson’s compared with those without.
The team then trained data on sniff-enabled AI. After the training process was over, the system recognized Parkinson patients and non-Parkinson patients with an accuracy level of 94%.