Hope for Alzheimer’s as a single brain scan can detect the disease in 98% of cases

British scientists have developed a unique brain scanner that can detect Alzheimer’s disease. This can be a great advance for early diagnosis.

The new technique is simple and can identify the condition in the early stages, which is very difficult to diagnose.

It is based on MRI and uses machine learning technology to assess structural features of the brain, including parts of the brain that were not previously associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers at Imperial College London have found that a new scanner can accurately detect the disease in 98% of cases.

He was also able to distinguish between early and late stages of Alzheimer’s disease in 79% of patients.

He or she may notice changes in areas of the brain that were not previously associated with Alzheimer’s disease, including the parts of the brain that regulate and regulate physical activity, as well as the parts related to emotions, vision, and hearing. .

This discovery will help researchers understand the cause of the disease and pave the way for new treatments.

Doctors now use many tests to diagnose your condition, such as cognitive and memory tests and brain scans.

The scans are used to check for protein deposits in the brain and to compress the hippocampus, an area of ​​the brain that is connected to memory.

All of them can take weeks to organize and process.

The new approach requires only one MRI with the standard 1.5 Tesla device found in most hospitals.

To create a scanner, the researchers developed an algorithm designed to classify cancerous tumors and applied it to the brain.

They divided the brain into 115 regions, identified 660 different properties, such as size, shape and texture, and evaluated each region.

The team then developed an algorithm to identify where changes in these properties can accurately predict the presence of Alzheimer’s disease.

Next, we tested the approach with more than 400 people in early and late stages of Alzheimer’s disease, healthy controls, and people with other brain conditions such as frontotemporal dementia and Parkinson’s disease.

They also checked data on more than 80 patients who underwent diagnostic testing for Alzheimer’s disease at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

Professor Eric Aboazi, who led the study, said:

“Many Alzheimer’s patients in memory clinics have other neurological conditions, but even in this group, our system can distinguish between patients with and without Alzheimer’s disease. I can do it.”

“Waiting for a diagnosis can be a frightening experience for patients and their families.

“It would be of great help to us if we could reduce your waiting time, simplify the diagnostic process and reduce uncertainty.

“Our new approach can also identify early-stage patients in clinical trials of new drug treatments and lifestyle changes that are currently very difficult.

Dr Palace Malhotra, Consultant Neurologist at Imperial College Health NHS Trust and Researcher at the Imperial Brain Science Department, said:

Algorithms that allow you to pick out the brain’s texture and subtle structural features that are the subject of Alzheimer’s disease actually improve on the information available with standard imaging techniques.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, affecting more than 500,000 Britons.

Most people with Alzheimer’s disease develop it after age 65, but younger people can develop it, too.

The most common symptoms of dementia are memory loss and difficulty thinking, solving problems, and speaking.

There is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease, but it helps patients make an early diagnosis.

This allows them to receive help and support, receive treatment to manage their symptoms, and plan for the future.

The findings were published in the journal Communications Medicine.