Early detection of Alzheimer’s disease expected with the help of Body-worn sensors

As per a recent study findings published in Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, Body-worn sensors, which are intended to assess gait movements, used at clinics and at homes by patients with mild Alzheimer’s could offer a cost-effective way to detect early disease and monitor disease progression.

As per the study, Gait is emerging as a potential diagnostic tool for cognitive decline. The ‘Deep and Frequent Phenotyping for Experimental Medicine in Dementia Study’ (D&FP) was a multicenter feasibility study embedded in the United Kingdom Dementia Platform designed to determine participant acceptability and feasibility of extensive and repeated phenotyping to determine the optimal combination of biomarkers to detect disease progression and identify early risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Gait was included as a clinical biomarker. The tools to quantify gait in the clinic and home, and suitability for multi-center application was not examined.

Six centers from the National Institute for Health Research Translational Research Collaboration in Dementia initiative recruited 20 individuals with early onset AD. Participants wore a single wearable (tri-axial accelerometer) and completed both clinic-based and free-living gait assessment. A series of macro (behavioral) and micro (spatiotemporal) characteristics were derived from the resultant data using previously validated algorithms.

Results of the study indicated good participant acceptability, and potential for use of body-worn sensors in both the clinic and the home. Recommendations for future studies were also provided along with the study results. Gait was demonstrated to be a feasible and suitable measure, and the study highlighted the need of future research to examine its suitability as a biomarker in AD.

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News Source: https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad171116

Image Source: https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2016/07/07/genetic-test-can-predict-alzheimers-disease-risk-teens-accurate/