Six years ago, a Canadian neurologist claimed that he noticed strange symptoms in a group of patients in New Bronzwek, a boycott on the borders of Maine.
According to the neurologist, Dr. Aller Marirro, patients suffered from hallucinations, cramps, fast memory loss and the feeling that insects were crawling under their skin, but their symptoms and brain wiping are not commensurate with an existing diagnosis. In other words, the cases were a mystery.
But since then, neurologists who have reviewed cases have identified clear diagnoses, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson and Cancer.
A The study was published this week In Jama, neuroscience enhance these results, which puts the possibility of mystery in about 1 in a million.
Doctors working in the study evaluated 25 people who were identified as part of the New Brunswick collection. Eleven patients died, so neuroscientists used their dissection to identify their diseases. For 14 alive patients, neurologists relied on cognitive assessments, among other tests. They concluded that all patients suffer from known cases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson, cancer, painful brain injuries, or after the ceremony.
“We have really felt a good interpretation of 100 % of cases,” said Dr. Anthony Lang, a neurologist at the Karimbil Brain Institute at the University’s Health Network.
However, some doctors are concerned that it will not be sufficient to cancel speculation that cases have an unknown origin – a theory of many patients and their families clinging to.
According to the authors of the study, 52 people who were identified as part of the BRUNSWICK New Brunswick group rejected the second opinions, and 42 others did not respond to the authors. The study attributes to a decrease in confidence in health institutions and the spread of wrong information on both traditional and social media.
“These were examples of the wrong diagnosis that then led to misleading information,” Lang said.
Maryro assigned a problem with the study and its results in a statement.
“I am in a deep disagreement with the conclusions of study and I have many questions related to methods and content,” he said. “I am sure that our patients, our families, and our societies share the same very dangerous concerns.”
Dr. Valery Sim, associate professor of neuroscience at Alberta University who did not participate in the study, said that there was no evidence that patients’ diseases are linked. In fact, she said the cases “are so wide in describing them to the point that we can all be exposed to mysterious disease.”
“Unfortunately, the only thing that all patients share is the same neurologist,” said Sim. “The patients who have seen by other neurologists get a well -known entity’s diagnosis not a mystery.”
“The second opinion by an expert in this field is often useful.”
Continuous investigation
The theory of ambiguity gained traction in 2021 when the Canadian health authorities began investigating cases based on Mariro’s reports. But even after the investigation He decided that most patients have known casesSome families were skeptical. In November, New Bronzwek Prime Minister Susan Holt, He called the Minister of Health in the province To conduct a scientific review “in mysterious brain disease”.
“New Brunswickers is worth answers,” Holt He said in a statement last year. “We need to know what makes us sick.”
Some patient defenders now believe that environmental exposure causes diseases, as blood and urine tests for patients claim the presence of heavy minerals, pesticides and rare antibodies that call for more study.
“It was not a matter of whether the patient could have an alternative diagnosis,” said Cat Lantegen, an advocate from New Bronzwick. “What led them to infection with this nervous degenerative disease?”
“The new study” does not change my office’s intention to complete its investigation in cases of unjust in New Bronzwek. “
He received his office 222 reports on cases It was identified as part of the mass.
“He evaluated more than 500 patients in this group, and provided a large quantity of unusual and sometimes critical environmental exposure evidence, as well as rare autoimmune signs in many of them.”
But Lang said that just because there is a substance in the blood or urine, it does not mean that it caused nervous symptoms of a person.
He said: “Do not do a gun looking for anything and everything, then you find something and claims to be related to the problem of the problem.”
Challenge the diagnosis of nervous issues
Neuroscientists who are not related to new Bronzwek refer to some of the reasons that defenders, doctors and government officials still discuss the issue of diseases.
They said to one of them, microscopic diagnoses could take some time. Some cases discovered in the study, such as Alzheimer’s disease, can have complicated performances.
“It is really a coherent story from the family and a timetable to understand whether someone is developing dementia. There can be confusing signs of a nervous examination,” said Dr. Kimberly O’Neill, a neurologist at the multi -sclerosis center at New York University.
One of the basic symptoms used to identify the new bronzuk patients was rapidly advancing with dementia. But families sometimes miss the signs of nervous degeneration at times, which makes the one seems to appear suddenly.
Sim said that once the exhausted symptoms arrive, patients and their families are often desperate to obtain answers and may be reluctant to abandon the first diagnoses they get.
“We see this all the time in medicine, that patients are attracted to a diagnosis or a group entity,” said Sim. “This is clearly what is happening here.”
She added that the wrong diagnosis is “a truly tragedy”, because patients can lose appropriate treatments or care.
This article was originally published on NBCNEWS.com
