Alzheimer's or Lewy Body Dementia? How Patients Draw Can Determine the Type of Dementia

Researchers from the University of Tsukuba and IBM Research find that automatic analysis of patients' drawings can help differentiate between Alzheimer's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies Tsukuba, Japan--The two most common neurodegenerative dementias are Alzheimer's disease (AD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). There is often an overlap of symptoms across these two diseases, which can make diagnoses difficult. Although biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid sampling and neuroimaging are the most well-validated diagnostic biomarkers, they can be invasive, time-consuming, and expensive. Researchers in Japan have discovered that the characteristics of patients' drawing process can discriminate between patients with AD and DLB, offering a cheap, non-invasive, and quick screening tool. Recently, an analysis of drawing tests has been shown to be useful for the identification of AD as well as Parkinson's disease, another form of Lewy body spectrum disorders.