2023-07-04 11:26:00
04.07.2023
Elisabeth Kröpfl
With the help of artificial intelligence, the watch uses various factors to recognize whether someone will later develop Parkinson’s disease.
The earlier Parkinson’s disease is detected, the sooner therapeutic measures can slow down its progression. With the help of artificial intelligence (AI). Smartwatches one Parkinson’s disease up to Recognize 7 years before the onset of symptoms. This is the result a new studywhich has now been published in the renowned journal Nature Medicine.
The team from the UK Dementia Research Institute at Cardiff University used artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze data from around 103,700 smartwatch wearers.
By the movement speed over a period of time of 7 days measured, they were able to accurately predict who would later develop Parkinson’s disease.
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The basis of Parkinson’s disease is a gradual loss of dopamine-containing neurons in the black matter of the midbrain. The lack of dopamine leads to the characteristic symptoms Movement poverty, muscle stiffness, speech disorders as well as Tremble. Some of those affected already suffer from uncharacteristic early symptoms, such as shoulder, arm or lower back pain or muscle cramps following sport.
In addition, it is now known that many years, in some cases 20 years, before classic symptoms, a number of mainly non-motor symptoms can appear, which can indicate the future development of Parkinson’s disease. These include actively acting out dreams, constipation, mood changes with a tendency to anxiety or depression, but also a reduced sense of smell.
AI can predict time to diagnosis
In the study, which ran from 2013 to 2016, the smartwatches measured the Average speed of the participants. Finally, the researchers compared the data from a test group who had already been diagnosed with Parkinson’s to another group who received their diagnosis up to 7 years following the smartwatch data was recorded at the 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, these might not only be distinguished from healthy controls. The researchers also showed 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 in predicting whether someone would develop Parkinson’s disease than any other risk factor or recognized early sign of the disease. The time to diagnosis can also be predicted.
The authors of the study now hope that smartwatches will be used as Screening-Instrument can be used to diagnose Parkinson’s earlier. However, further research is needed to compare the new results with other data.
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More than 10 million affected
Parkinson’s is the most rapidly increasing neurological disease. More than 10 million people are affected worldwide, around 25,000 in Austria alone. The disease is not yet curable. The earlier the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease can be made, the more successfully the disease process can be intervened.
‘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 Kathryn Peall from Cardiff University.
“Although our results are not intended to replace existing diagnostic methods, the data from the smartwatches might provide a useful screening tool for early detection of the disease. This means that as soon as new treatment options hopefully become available, people will have access to them.” before the disease severely damages the brain.”
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