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Kentucky Man Benefits From Pump Treatment for Parkinson's Disease

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A Georgetown man is benefiting from a portable infusion pump that delivers a drug to treat his Parkinson's disease symptoms.  The device is designed for patients who have seen little success with traditional, oral methods.  

70 year-old Marion Cox participated in a University of Kentucky clinical trial.  He says the drug delivery method has made a big impact on his life.

"I've referred to it as a new lease on life, where I came from versus were I am," said Cox. "It's hard for me to believe and it was in my skin."

The pump delivers the drug directly into the small intestine.  Cox's wife Becky says it's made a big difference in his ability to continue to work on the farm.

"As time went by when he was on the oral medications, he had to take more and more tablets and he had to take them every so many hours," she said. "It got to an unmanageable point really."

Dr John Slevin is Vice Chair of Research at the University of Kentucky's Neuroscience Institute.  He says this method might help patients who have previously undergone deep brain stimulation.

"And I certainly envision patients who are way late in the disease and otherwise in good health in whom both procedures may extend their function life even further," said Slevin. 

Deep brain stimulation is a technique that surgically places electrodes attached to an implanted battery.  Slevin says the pump technology is already being used more widely in Europe. 

Stu Johnson is a reporter/producer at WEKU in Lexington, Kentucky.
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