Scientists have developed an AI device that can diagnose Alzheimer’s much more accurately than the current “gold standard” test – and hope it could start to be used on the NHS as early as next year.
The new tool is able to accurately identify people with Alzheimer’s 83 per cent of the time, compared to 67 per cent for the best existing tests.
It was made possible after a breakthrough in understanding about the “amyloid” protein plaques that build up in the brain and trigger the disease – as well as indicating its presence in diagnostic tests.
The developers of the device discovered that it was not just the number of these plaques that was important but their positioning – a finding that could help researchers develop effective new treatments as well as improve diagnosis further down the line.
Alzheimer’s is a notoriously difficult disease to diagnose because there are lots of causes and symptoms.
But this new device “boosts the diagnostic power of a PET scan”, said Ashwin Venkataraman, of Imperial College London.
PET, positron emission tomography, scans are…
