University of Florida researchers have developed a new artificial intelligence tool that could help doctors more accurately distinguish between Alzheimer’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies, two conditions that are often confused during diagnosis.
The tool, called Automated Imaging Differentiation for Dementia, or AIDD, uses advanced MRI brain scans and AI to analyze subtle patterns of water movement in the brain. Those patterns can signal brain cell damage and inflammation, helping researchers identify signs linked to different forms of dementia.
The findings were published in a recent study in Neurology. Researchers said AIDD was able to distinguish between Alzheimer’s disease dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies with near-perfect accuracy.
“The use of AI and advanced imaging technology holds considerable promise to uncover brain degeneration patterns for dementia,” said David Vaillancourt, Ph.D., a distinguished professor and the Orchid Endowed Chair for the UF Department of Applied Physiology & Kinesiology in the College of Health and Human Performance.
The research comes as Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias are expected to more than double by 2060. June is also Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month, bringing added attention to the need for earlier and more accurate diagnosis.
Alzheimer’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies are both forms of dementia, but they often affect patients differently. Dementia with Lewy bodies can begin with problems involving attention, alertness and movement, while Alzheimer’s disease is more commonly associated with memory loss.
The distinction is important because the two conditions require different treatment approaches. According to UF researchers, up to 50% of patients with dementia with Lewy bodies are misdiagnosed as having Alzheimer’s disease. In some cases, an incorrect diagnosis can lead to treatments that worsen cognitive or motor symptoms.
Late actor Robin Williams had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, but an autopsy later showed diffuse Lewy body disease / Lewy body dementia. His widow, Susan Schneider Williams, has said the disease helped explain symptoms he experienced near the end of his life, including anxiety, paranoia, sleep problems, cognitive changes, hallucinations, and movement issues. Lewy body dementia is often confused with Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s-related conditions because symptoms can overlap. It can affect thinking, movement, mood, alertness, sleep, and perception. Johns Hopkins notes that Lewy bodies are usually confirmed with certainty only after autopsy.
To develop AIDD, researchers reviewed 519 brain scans from patients with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia with Lewy bodies and a control group with no disease. The scans were collected between January 2007 and March 2022 from multiple research data centers.
A subset of 387 scans — including 129 Alzheimer’s cases, 129 dementia with Lewy bodies cases and 129 control cases — was used to train and test the AI model. Researchers used 80% of those scans to train the system and the remaining 20% to test it.
“To ensure the highest standards of reliability, we performed extensive validation experiments using data collected from multiple scanners and imaging centers,” said Angelos Barmpoutis, Ph.D., a professor in the UF College of the Arts’ Digital Worlds Institute.
Barmpoutis worked on the study with Vaillancourt and Robin Chen, Ph.D., a postdoctoral student in the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering.
The MRI scans used in the study measured extra fluid in the brain, which can be associated with brain cell damage and inflammation. By analyzing those patterns through AI, researchers were able to identify disease-specific differences more accurately.
Researchers also tested the tool on a separate group of 13 patients whose diagnoses were later confirmed through autopsy. AIDD correctly identified all 13 cases.
“Since the therapies for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies differ, developing precision biomarkers will offer better outcomes for patients,” Vaillancourt said.
Source: Alisha Katz, Communications Director at the University of Florida College of Health and Human Performance.
