Study explores computers to detect Alzheimer's in brain scans

Monday, March 03, 2008

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. –Computers can be trained to detect early signs of Alzheimer's disease in MRI brain scans, according to a study from Mayo Clinic and other participating centers. The findings were published in the March 2008 issue of Brain.

Researchers were able to diagnose Alzheimer's correctly, using software that detected the difference between MRI brain scans of those with Alzheimer's and those without the disease with accuracy as high as 96 percent. The study also revealed that the computer-based diagnostic method could successfully differentiate patients with Alzheimer's disease from those with frontotemporal lobar degeneration, a form of dementia involving degeneration of gray matter.

Data from different medical centers, using scans from different equipment, were combined, and the findings proved compatible.

"Currently, MRI scans are not used clinically to diagnose Alzheimer's disease, but rather to rule out diseases such as stroke or tumors. This research finding could enable physicians to use MRI scans for diagnosing the condition earlier and more accurately," says Cynthia M. Stonnington, M.D., a specialist in Psychiatry at Mayo Clinic and one of the authors of the study.

The research team used the software to analyze brain scans of people for whom Alzheimer's had been pathologically confirmed. The software was able to compare the information with images of healthy brains, and use the data to diagnose new sets of images.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia, which is the loss of intellectual and social abilities severe enough to interfere with daily functioning. Dementia occurs in people with Alzheimer's disease because healthy brain tissue degenerates, causing a steady decline in memory and mental abilities.

About 4 million older Americans have Alzheimer's, a disease that usually develops in people age 65 or older. This number is expected to triple by the year 2050 as the population ages.

Although there's no cure for Alzheimer's disease, researchers have made progress. Treatments are available that improve the quality of life for some people with Alzheimer's. Also, more drugs are being studied, and scientists have discovered several genes associated with Alzheimer's, which may lead to new treatments to block progression of this complex disease.

Researchers explain that a key advantage of using computers to assist in diagnosing Alzheimer's is that they may prove cheaper, faster and more accurate than the current method.

"The next step is to see whether we can use the technique to diagnose disease pre-symptomatically," says Dr. Stonnington.

The study was supported by Mayo Clinic, the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging in London, the National Institute on Aging and the Medical Research Council.

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Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. As a leading academic medical center in the Southwest, Mayo Clinic focuses on providing specialty and surgical care in more than 65 disciplines at its outpatient facility in north Scottsdale and at Mayo Clinic Hospital. The 244 licensed-bed hospital is located at 56th Street and Mayo Boulevard (north of Bell Road) in northeast Phoenix, and provides inpatient care to support the medical and surgical specialties of the clinic, which is located at 134th Street and Shea Boulevard in Scottsdale.

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About Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy of "the needs of the patient come first." More than 3,300 physicians, scientists and researchers and 46,000 allied health staff work at Mayo Clinic, which has sites in Rochester, Minn., Jacksonville, Fla., and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz. Collectively, the three locations treat more than half a million people each year. To obtain the latest news releases from Mayo Clinic, go to www.mayoclinic.org/news. For information about research and education visit www.mayo.edu. MayoClinic.com is available as a resource for your health stories.