- In both dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, early diagnosis is important to slow the progression of symptoms.
- Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease can be difficult to diagnose in the early stages because they have the same or similar symptoms as age-related cognitive decline.
- Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed an AI-based tool that can predict whether people with early dementia symptoms will remain stable or progress to Alzheimer’s disease.
condition is dementia and Alzheimer’s disease Although they are often used interchangeably, they are not the same.
Both dementia and Alzheimer’s disease Early diagnosis This is key to slowing down the progression of the disease. However, previous research has
Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease have something in common Symptoms Both conditions are often difficult to diagnose early due to the natural cognitive decline that comes with aging.
To solve this problem, researchers at the University of Cambridge
The study was recently published in the journal Neurology.
To build their AI tool, the researchers used cognitive testing and MRI scan data from more than 400 people from a US-based research group.
The researchers then tested the AI tool on data from another 600 people in the US study group, and 900 participants in memory disorder clinics in the UK and Singapore.
“An AI model is only as good as the data used to train it,” he explains. Dr. Zoe Kurziis Professor of Experimental Psychology and Associate Director for Research in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge, and lead author of the study.
“To ensure our system could be adopted in clinical practice, we trained and tested it not only on a research cohort, but also on routinely collected data from patients in real memory clinics, demonstrating its generalizability in real-world settings,” she says.
According to the researchers, the AI-based tool was able to distinguish between fixated and non-fixated subjects.
In the end, the tool was able to accurately identify 82% of participants who developed Alzheimer’s disease and 81% of those who did not, based solely on MRI scans and cognitive tests.
Scientists said the AI tool was nearly three times more accurate at predicting early signs of dementia and the progression to Alzheimer’s disease than current standard treatments.
“Using only data from cognitive tests and MRI scans, we have developed a tool that is much more sensitive than current approaches in predicting whether mild symptoms will progress to Alzheimer’s disease, and if so, whether that progression will be fast or slow,” Cozzi says.
“this [tool] “This technology has the potential to significantly improve patient health outcomes, showing which patients need the most attention and relieving anxiety for those who are predicted to remain stable. At a time when healthcare resources are strained, this could also help eliminate the need for unnecessary invasive and costly diagnostic testing.”
— Dr. Zoe Kurzi
After reviewing this study, Manisha Parulekar, MD, FACP, AGSF, CMD“We’re seeing a lot of people with memory loss right now who are struggling with their memory problems,” said Matthews, director of the department of geriatrics at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey and co-director of the center’s Center for Memory Loss and Brain Health. Today’s Medical News The development of an AI tool that can predict with 82% accuracy whether someone with early signs of dementia will go on to develop Alzheimer’s is a major advancement.
“Currently, it is difficult to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease early. This information can help with lifestyle interventions, guide treatment decisions and plan for the future for patients and their families.”
— Manisha Parulekar, MD, FACP, AGSF, CMD
“One of the challenges in research is the inability to recruit patients with mild cognitive impairment for various treatment trials. This will also help in identifying patients from diverse backgrounds. Currently, most of the patients joining trials are people with good health literacy. Early diagnosis allows patients to start treatment sooner. Recently approved drugs are for patients with mild cognitive impairment and early stage Alzheimer’s dementia,” Parulekar added.
Parulekar said he would like to see the AI tool tested on larger, more diverse populations.
“The current study was conducted on a relatively small sample of patients,” she explained, “and it will be important to validate this tool in larger, more diverse populations to ensure it is accurate and generalizable.”
MNT We spoke again David Merrill, MDDr. David G. Schneider, a geriatric psychiatrist and director of the Pacific Brain Health Center at the Pacific Neuroscience Institute at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California, said the study demonstrates the utility of AI to create accurate predictive models of dementia from information that is already commonly collected about patients in real-world care.
“While roughly half of patients with mild cognitive impairment will not progress to dementia within five years, half of patients will progress within five years, and 10-15% will progress within the first year after diagnosis. It is important to accurately predict which patients will require rapid and intensive intervention to prevent progression to full-blown dementia, and which patients have more time or are at lower risk of progression.”
— David Merrill, MD
“Using this model and others like it, we may be able to understand what interventions might truly ‘save’ patients from progressing to dementia in patients who may otherwise be at risk,” Merrill continued.
“Currently, patients have a 50-50 chance of progressing to dementia, so when we see anecdotal reports of ‘reversed’ dementia, are we looking at cases that truly didn’t progress, or are we reporting cases that should never have progressed in the first place? If we can prevent cases that were predicted to progress to dementia, that would be strong evidence that our intervention is truly altering the natural course of an individual’s disease course,” he said.
