Blood Methylation Analysis, Artificial Intelligence May Detect Alzheimer's Disease Early

An artificial intelligence-based analysis of epigenetic patterns in blood samples might be able to identify people with Alzheimer's disease, a new study has found. Alzheimer's disease affects nearly 47 million people around the world but can be difficult to diagnose, particularly in its early stages when therapeutic interventions might have the greatest effect. "Drugs used in the late stage of the disease do not seem make much difference, so there is a tremendous amount of interest in diagnosis in the early stages of the disease," Khaled Imam, director of geriatric medicine at Beaumont Health and a co-author of the new study, said in a statement. Imam added that "blood is thought to be a desirable way of approaching this. And it would be relatively cheap and minimally invasive as compared to an MRI or spinal tap."