Alzheimer's Spotted Early through Machine-Learning Technique GEN

Case Western Reserve University scientists have developed a new machine learning program that looks like it may be able to diagnose Alzheimer's disease before symptoms begin to interfere with day-to-day activities. While there is no cure for Alzheimer's, a number of drugs can delay or prevent symptoms from worsening for up to five years or more, Early diagnosis and treatment--the goal of the new computer-based program--is key to allowing those with the disease to remain independent longer, according to the researchers. In two successive stages, the algorithm selects the most pertinent to predict who has Alzheimer's. The team published its study ("Cascaded Multi-view Canonical Correlation (CaMCCo) for Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease via Fusion of Clinical, Imaging and Omic Features") in Scientific Reports. "The introduction of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) as a diagnostic category adds to the challenges of diagnosing Alzheimer's Disease (AD). No single marker has been proven to accurately categorize patients into their respective diagnostic groups," write the investigators.