A single brain scan instead of dozens of examinations: How AI should recognize dementia in the future

So far it can take weeks before doctors can diagnose dementia. An AI from the University of Cambridge should be able to do this in the future with a brain scan. Tests are running.

It can currently take several weeks for doctors to prove dementia in their patients. Sometimes several brain scans are necessary. It would be important to diagnose dementia as early as possible so that appropriate treatments can slow the progression of the disease. Researchers at Cambridge University have now developed an artificial intelligence (AI) that is said to be able to detect dementia with just a brain scan.

The AI, so the hope after the first tests, can recognize patterns from the results of a brain scan that the human eye cannot see . The system then compares the patterns with the brain scans of thousands of dementia patients in a database so that a corresponding diagnosis can then be made. The preclinical tests suggest that the AI ​​can detect signs of dementia in the brains of those affected years before the development of possible symptoms, as the BBC writes.

Now the AI ​​is to be tested in a clinical study. The tests are carried out at Cambridge University’s teaching hospital (Addenbrooke’s Hospital) as well as several memory clinics across the UK. According to the researchers, around 500 patients will take part in the course of the first year.

“If we intervene early, we can start treatments early and slow the progression of the disease,” said Zoe Kourtzi from Cambridge University BBC. At the same time, further damage could be avoided. “And it is likely that symptoms will appear much later in life or never”. The neurologist Tim Rittmann, who worked on the study, calls AI a “fantastic development”. Neurologists could make the diagnosis faster and more reliably and help the patient with further life planning.

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