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Single brain scan can diagnose Alzheimer's disease

Date:
June 20, 2022
Source:
Imperial College London
Summary:
A single MRI scan of the brain could be enough to diagnose Alzheimer's disease, according to new research.
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The research uses machine learning technology to look at structural features within the brain, including in regions not previously associated with Alzheimer's. The advantage of the technique is its simplicity and the fact that it can identify the disease at an early stage when it can be very difficult to diagnose.

Although there is no cure for Alzheimer's disease, getting a diagnosis quickly at an early stage helps patients. It allows them to access help and support, get treatment to manage their symptoms and plan for the future. Being able to accurately identify patients at an early stage of the disease will also help researchers to understand the brain changes that trigger the disease, and support development and trials of new treatments.

The research is published in the Nature Portfolio Journal, Communications Medicine, and funded through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Imperial Biomedical Research Centre.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, affecting over half a million people in the UK. Although most people with Alzheimer's disease develop it after the age of 65, people under this age can develop it too. The most frequent symptoms of dementia are memory loss and difficulties with thinking, problem solving and language.

Doctors currently use a raft of tests to diagnose Alzheimer's disease, including memory and cognitive tests and brain scans. The scans are used to check for protein deposits in the brain and shrinkage of the hippocampus, the area of the brain linked to memory. All of these tests can take several weeks, both to arrange and to process.

The new approach requires just one of these -- a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scan taken on a standard 1.5 Tesla machine, which is commonly found in most hospitals.

The researchers adapted an algorithm developed for use in classifying cancer tumours, and applied it to the brain. They divided the brain into 115 regions and allocated 660 different features, such as size, shape and texture, to assess each region. They then trained the algorithm to identify where changes to these features could accurately predict the existence of Alzheimer's disease.

Using data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, the team tested their approach on brain scans from over 400 patients with early and later stage Alzheimer's, healthy controls and patients with other neurological conditions, including frontotemporal dementia and Parkinson's disease. They also tested it with data from over 80 patients undergoing diagnostic tests for Alzheimer's at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

They found that in 98 per cent of cases, the MRI-based machine learning system alone could accurately predict whether the patient had Alzheimer's disease or not. It was also able to distinguish between early and late-stage Alzheimer's with fairly high accuracy, in 79 per cent of patients.

Professor Eric Aboagye, from Imperial's Department of Surgery and Cancer, who led the research, said: "Currently no other simple and widely available methods can predict Alzheimer's disease with this level of accuracy, so our research is an important step forward. Many patients who present with Alzheimer's at memory clinics do also have other neurological conditions, but even within this group our system could pick out those patients who had Alzheimer's from those who did not.

"Waiting for a diagnosis can be a horrible experience for patients and their families. If we could cut down the amount of time they have to wait, make diagnosis a simpler process, and reduce some of the uncertainty, that would help a great deal. Our new approach could also identify early-stage patients for clinical trials of new drug treatments or lifestyle changes, which is currently very hard to do."

The new system spotted changes in areas of the brain not previously associated with Alzheimer's disease, including the cerebellum (the part of the brain that coordinates and regulates physical activity) and the ventral diencephalon (linked to the senses, sight and hearing). This opens up potential new avenues for research into these areas and their links to Alzheimer's disease.

Dr Paresh Malhotra, who is a consultant neurologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and a researcher in Imperial's Department of Brain Sciences, said: "Although neuroradiologists already interpret MRI scans to help diagnose Alzheimer's, there are likely to be features of the scans that aren't visible, even to specialists. Using an algorithm able to select texture and subtle structural features in the brain that are affected by Alzheimer's could really enhance the information we can gain from standard imaging techniques."


Story Source:

Materials provided by Imperial College London. Original written by Maxine Myers. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Marianna Inglese, Neva Patel, Kristofer Linton-Reid, Flavia Loreto, Zarni Win, Richard J. Perry, Christopher Carswell, Matthew Grech-Sollars, William R. Crum, Haonan Lu, Paresh A. Malhotra, Lisa C. Silbert, Betty Lind, Rachel Crissey, Jeffrey A. Kaye, Raina Carter, Sara Dolen, Joseph Quinn, Lon S. Schneider, Sonia Pawluczyk, Mauricio Becerra, Liberty Teodoro, Karen Dagerman, Bryan M. Spann, James Brewer, Helen Vanderswag, Adam Fleisher, Jaimie Ziolkowski, Judith L. Heidebrink, Zbizek-Nulph, Joanne L. Lord, Lisa Zbizek-Nulph, Ronald Petersen, Sara S. Mason, Colleen S. Albers, David Knopman, Kris Johnson, Javier Villanueva-Meyer, Valory Pavlik, Nathaniel Pacini, Ashley Lamb, Joseph S. Kass, Rachelle S. Doody, Victoria Shibley, Munir Chowdhury, Susan Rountree, Mimi Dang, Yaakov Stern, Lawrence S. Honig, Akiva Mintz, Beau Ances, John C. Morris, David Winkfield, Maria Carroll, Georgia Stobbs-Cucchi, Angela Oliver, Mary L. Creech, Mark A. Mintun, Stacy Schneider, David Geldmacher, Marissa Natelson Love, Randall Griffith, David Clark, John Brockington, Daniel Marson, Hillel Grossman, Martin A. Goldstein, Jonathan Greenberg, Effie Mitsis, Raj C. Shah, Melissa Lamar, Ajay Sood, Kimberly S. Blanchard, Debra Fleischman, Konstantinos Arfanakis, Patricia Samuels, Ranjan Duara, Maria T. Greig-Custo, Rosemarie Rodriguez, Marilyn Albert, Daniel Varon, Chiadi Onyike, Leonie Farrington, Scott Rudow, Rottislav Brichko, Maria T. Greig, Stephanie Kielb, Amanda Smith, Balebail Ashok Raj, Kristin Fargher, Martin Sadowski, Thomas Wisniewski, Melanie Shulman, Arline Faustin, Julia Rao, Karen M. Castro, Anaztasia Ulysse, Shannon Chen, Mohammed O. Sheikh, Jamika Singleton-Garvin, P. Murali Doraiswamy, Jeffrey R. Petrella, Olga James, Terence Z. Wong, Salvador Borges-Neto, Jason H. Karlawish, David A. Wolk, Sanjeev Vaishnavi, Christopher M. Clark, Steven E. Arnold, Charles D. Smith, Gregory A. Jicha, Riham El Khouli, Flavius D. Raslau, Oscar L. Lopez, Michelle Zmuda, Meryl Butters, MaryAnn Oakley, Donna M. Simpson, Anton P. Porsteinsson, Kim Martin, Nancy Kowalski, Kimberly S. Martin, Melanie Keltz, Bonnie S. Goldstein, Kelly M. Makino, M. Saleem Ismail, Connie Brand, Christopher Reist, Gaby Thai, Aimee Pierce, Beatriz Yanez, Elizabeth Sosa, Megan Witbracht, Brendan Kelley, Trung Nguyen, Kyle Womack, Dana Mathews, Mary Quiceno, Allan I. Levey, James J. Lah, Ihab Hajjar, Janet S. Cellar, Jeffrey M. Burns, Russell H. Swerdlow, William M. Brooks, Daniel H. S. Silverman, Sarah Kremen, Liana Apostolova, Kathleen Tingus, Po H. Lu, George Bartzokis, Ellen Woo, Edmond Teng, Neill R. Graff-Radford, Francine Parfitt, Kim Poki-Walker, Martin R. Farlow, Ann Marie Hake, Brandy R. Matthews, Jared R. Brosch, Scott Herring, Christopher H. van Dyck, Adam P. Mecca, Susan P. Good, Martha G. MacAvoy, Richard E. Carson, Pradeep Varma, Howard Chertkow, Susan Vaitekunis, Chris Hosein, Sandra Black, Bojana Stefanovic, Chris Chinthaka Heyn, Ging-Yuek Robin Hsiung, Ellen Kim, Benita Mudge, Vesna Sossi, Howard Feldman, Michele Assaly, Elizabeth Finger, Stephen Pasternak, Irina Rachinsky, Andrew Kertesz, Dick Drost, John Rogers, Ian Grant, Brittanie Muse, Emily Rogalski, Jordan Robson M. -Marsel Mesulam, Diana Kerwin, Chuang-Kuo Wu, Nancy Johnson, Kristine Lipowski, Sandra Weintraub, Borna Bonakdarpour, Nunzio Pomara, Raymundo Hernando, Antero Sarrael, Howard J. Rosen, Scott Mackin, Craig Nelson, David Bickford, Yiu Ho Au, Kelly Scherer, Daniel Catalinotto, Samuel Stark, Elise Ong, Dariella Fernandez, Bruce L. Miller, Howard Rosen, David Perry, Raymond Scott Turner, Kathleen Johnson, Brigid Reynolds, Kelly MCCann, Jessica Poe, Reisa A. Sperling, Keith A. Johnson, Gad A. Marshall, Jerome Yesavage, Joy L. Taylor, Steven Chao, Jaila Coleman, Jessica D. White, Barton Lane, Allyson Rosen, Jared Tinklenberg, Christine M. Belden, Alireza Atri, Bryan M. Spann, Kelly A. Clark Edward Zamrini, Marwan Sabbagh, Ronald Killiany, Robert Stern, Jesse Mez, Neil Kowall, Andrew E. Budson, Thomas O. Obisesan, Oyonumo E. Ntekim, Saba Wolday, Javed I. Khan, Evaristus Nwulia, Sheeba Nadarajah, Alan Lerner, Paula Ogrocki, Curtis Tatsuoka, Parianne Fatica, Evan Fletcher, Pauline Maillard, John Olichney, Charles DeCarli, Owen Carmichael, Vernice Bates, Horacio Capote, Michelle Rainka, Michael Borrie, T. -Y Lee, Rob Bartha, Sterling Johnson, Sanjay Asthana, Cynthia M. Carlsson, Allison Perrin, Anna Burke, Douglas W. Scharre, Maria Kataki, Rawan Tarawneh, Brendan Kelley, David Hart, Earl A. Zimmerman, Dzintra Celmins, Delwyn D. Miller, Laura L. Boles Ponto, Karen Ekstam Smith, Hristina Koleva, Hyungsub Shim, Ki Won Nam, Susan K. Schultz, Jeff D. Williamson, Suzanne Craft, Jo Cleveland, Mia Yang, Kaycee M. Sink, Brian R. Ott, Jonathan Drake, Geoffrey Tremont, Lori A. Daiello, Jonathan D. Drake, Marwan Sabbagh, Aaron Ritter, Charles Bernick, Donna Munic, Akiva Mintz, Abigail O’Connelll, Jacobo Mintzer, Arthur Wiliams, Joseph Masdeu, Jiong Shi, Angelica Garcia, Marwan Sabbagh, Paul Newhouse, Steven Potkin, Stephen Salloway, Paul Malloy, Stephen Correia, Smita Kittur, Godfrey D. Pearlson, Karen Blank, Karen Anderson, Laura A. Flashman, Marc Seltzer, Mary L. Hynes, Robert B. Santulli, Norman Relkin, Gloria Chiang, Michael Lin, Lisa Ravdin, Athena Lee, Carl Sadowsky, Walter Martinez, Teresa Villena, Elaine R. Peskind, Eric C. Petrie, Gail Li, Eric O. Aboagye. A predictive model using the mesoscopic architecture of the living brain to detect Alzheimer’s disease. Communications Medicine, 2022; 2 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s43856-022-00133-4

Cite This Page:

Imperial College London. "Single brain scan can diagnose Alzheimer's disease." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 20 June 2022. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/06/220620100827.htm>.
Imperial College London. (2022, June 20). Single brain scan can diagnose Alzheimer's disease. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/06/220620100827.htm
Imperial College London. "Single brain scan can diagnose Alzheimer's disease." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/06/220620100827.htm (accessed March 28, 2024).

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