Elisabeth Crovel
The earlier Parkinson’s disease is detected, the sooner treatment measures can slow its progression. With the help of artificial intelligence (AI). smart watches One Parkinson’s disease until Know 7 years before symptoms appear. This is the result New studywhich has now been published in the renowned journal Nature Medicine.
The UK Dementia Research Institute team at Cardiff University used artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze data from around 103,700 smartwatch wearers.
by Movement speed over a period of time 7 days measured, and they were able to accurately predict who would later develop Parkinson’s disease.
The basis of Parkinson’s disease is Gradual loss of dopamine-containing neurons in the substantia nigra from the midbrain. Dopamine deficiency leads to the characteristic symptoms poverty movementAnd muscle stiffnessAnd speech disorders Beside Tremble. Some sufferers already experience uncharacteristic early symptoms, such as shoulder, arm, or lower back pain, or muscle cramps after sports.
In addition, it is now known that for many years, in some cases 20 years, before the onset of classic symptoms, a number of mainly non-motor symptoms can appear, which could indicate the future development of Parkinson’s disease. These symptoms include actively engaging in dreams, constipation, mood changes with a tendency to be anxious or depressed, but also a decreased sense of smell.
Artificial intelligence can predict the time of diagnosis
In the study, which ran from 2013 to 2016, smartwatches measured average speed of the participants. Finally, the researchers compared data from a test group already diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease to another group that received their diagnosis up to 7 years after the smartwatch data was recorded at that time.
They saw that with the help of artificial intelligence, it was possible to use smartwatch data to identify people who would later develop Parkinson’s disease. In the study, they were just indistinguishable from healthy controls. Researchers have also shown that AI can be used to identify individuals in the general population who will later develop Parkinson’s disease.
According to the current study, AI is more accurate at predicting whether someone will develop Parkinson’s disease than any other risk factor or early sign of the disease. The time of diagnosis can also be predicted.
The study authors now hope that smartwatches can be used as Sorting tool They can be used to diagnose Parkinson’s disease early. However, more research is needed to compare the new findings with other data.
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More than 10 million affected
Parkinson’s disease is The fastest increase in neurological diseases. More than 10 million people are affected worldwide, around 25,000 in Austria alone. The disease is not yet curable. The earlier a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease can be made, the more successful the intervention will be.
“For most people with Parkinson’s disease, by the time symptoms first appear, many of the affected brain cells have already been lost. This means that early diagnosis of the disease is difficult,” explains This. Catherine Bell from Cardiff University.
“Although our findings are not intended to replace existing diagnostic methods, data from smartwatches could provide a useful screening tool for early detection of disease. This means that once new treatment options become available, people will have access to them.” “Before the disease severely damaged the brain.”