What is a 'Lewy body,' and how does it factor into Parkinson's?

What is a 'Lewy body,' and how does it factor into Parkinson's?

Neal Hermanowicz (Director of the Movement Disorders Program) gives expert video advice on: What hallucinations are associated with Parkinson's? and more...

A Lewy body is—it's Lewy, L-E-W-Y, which is the name of a pathologist who recognized a microscopic finding in the brain tissue of people with Parkinsons disease. If you take a piece of the brain and stain it in a certain way and look at it under a microscope, one can find this spherical-looking clump of what turns out to be abnormal protein within the actual neuron - the neuron being the brain cell that's affected by Parkinsons disease. It still, to this day, is regarded as one of the very key features in terms of confirming the diagnosis by tissue analysis. We don't do this in clinical practice; we don't do brain biopsies, but if we are wondering about the diagnosis of somebody after they've passed away, for example, the way that diagnosis is confirmed is by identifying Lewy bodies in a microscopic analysis of the brain.