AI Could Predict Alzheimer's Disease Two Years in Advance

The algorithm -- which accurately predicted probable Alzheimer's disease 84 percent of the time -- could be particularly useful in selecting patients for clinical trials for drugs intended to delay disease onset, said lead study author Sulantha Sanjeewa, a computer scientist at McGill University in Canada. "If you can tell from a group of of individuals who is the one that will develop the disease, one can better test new medications that could be capable of preventing the disease," said co-lead study author Dr. Pedro Rosa-Neto, an associate professor of neurology, neurosurgery and psychiatry, also at McGill University. The technology is still in its early stages, but the findings suggest that AI analysis of brain scans could offer better results than relying on humans alone, Rosa-Neto told Live Science. The findings are detailed in a new study, which was published online in July in the journal Neurobiology of Aging. Developing drugs that slow the onset of Alzheimer's disease requires that the drugs be tested in clinical trials that run between 18 and 24 months, Rosa-Neto said.