VR can spot early symptoms of Alzheimer's: Study

Agencies

May 24, 2019

London, May 24: Virtual reality (VR) can identify early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease more accurately than 'gold standard' cognitive tests currently in use, a study claims.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge in the UK noted that brain contains a mental 'satnav' (satellite navigation) of where we are, where we have been, and how to find our way around.

A key component of this internal satnav is a region of the brain known as the entorhinal cortex.

This is one of the first regions to be damaged in Alzheimer's disease, which may explain why 'getting lost' is one of the first symptoms of the disease.

However, the pen-and-paper cognitive tests used in the clinic to diagnose the condition are unable to test for navigation difficulties.

In collaboration with Professor Neil Burgess at University College London (UCL) in the UK, a team at Cambridge led by Dennis Chan developed and trialed a VR navigation test in patients at risk of developing dementia.

In the test, a patient dons a VR headset and undertakes a test of navigation while walking within a simulated environment.

Successful completion of the task requires intact functioning of the entorhinal cortex, so Chan's team hypothesised that patients with early Alzheimer's disease would be disproportionately affected on the test.

The study, published in the journal Brain, recruited 45 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Patients with MCI typically exhibit memory impairment, but while MCI can indicate early Alzheimer's, it can also be caused by other conditions such as anxiety and even normal ageing.

Establishing the cause of MCI is crucial for determining whether affected individuals are at risk of developing dementia in the future.

The researchers took samples of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to look for biomarkers of underlying Alzheimer's disease in their MCI patients, with 12 testing positive.

They also recruited 41 age-matched healthy controls for comparison.

All of the patients with MCI performed worse on the navigation task than the healthy controls.

MCI patients with positive CSF markers -- indicating the presence of Alzheimer's disease, thus placing them at risk of developing dementia -- performed worse than those with negative CSF markers at low risk of future dementia.

The VR navigation task was better at differentiating between these low and high-risk MCI patients than a battery of currently-used tests considered to be the gold standard for the diagnosis of early Alzheimer's.

"These results suggest a VR test of navigation may be better at identifying early Alzheimer's disease than tests we use at present in the clinic and in research studies," said Chan.

VR could also help clinical trials of future drugs aimed at slowing down, or even halting, a progression of Alzheimer's disease, researchers said.

Currently, the first stage of drug trials involves testing in animals, typically mouse models of the disease.

"The brain cells underpinning navigation are similar in rodents and humans, so testing navigation may allow us to overcome this roadblock in Alzheimer's drug trials and help translate basic science discoveries into clinical use," said Chan.

"We've wanted to do this for years, but it's only now that VR technology has evolved to the point that we can readily undertake this research in patients," he said.

Chan believes technology could play a crucial role in diagnosing and monitoring Alzheimer's disease.

He is working with Professor Cecilia Mascolo at Cambridge to develop apps for detecting the disease and monitoring its progression.

These apps would run on smartphones and smartwatches, researchers said.

As well as looking for changes in how we navigate, the apps will track changes in other everyday activities such as sleep and communication, they said.

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Low fruit, vegetable intake makes people vulnerable to anxiety: Study

Agencies

February 27,2020

Washington D.C, Feb 27: New research shows that adults who have low fruit and vegetable intake are more likely to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.

"For those who consumed less than 3 sources of fruits and vegetables daily, there was at least at 24% higher odds of anxiety disorder diagnosis," says the lead author of the Canadian Longitudinal Study, Karen Davison, who is a health science faculty member, nutrition informatics lab director at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, (KPU) and North American Primary Care Research Group Fellow.

"This may also partly explain the findings associated with body composition measures. As levels of total body fat increased beyond 36%, the likelihood of anxiety disorder was increased by more than 70%," states co-author Jose Mora-Almanza, a Mitacs Globalink intern who worked with the study at KPU.

"Increased body fat may be linked to greater inflammation. Emerging research suggests that some anxiety disorders can be linked to inflammation," says Davison.

In addition to diet and body composition measures, the prevalence of anxiety disorders also differed by gender, marital status, income, immigrant status and several health issues.

An important limitation of the study was that the assessment of anxiety disorders was mostly based upon self-reporting of a medical diagnosis.

"It is estimated that 10% of the global population will suffer from anxiety disorders which are a leading cause of disability," says Karen Davison

"Our findings suggest that comprehensive approaches that target health behaviours, including diet, as well as social factors, such as economic status, may help to minimize the burden of anxiety disorders among middle-aged and older adults, including immigrants," she concluded.

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Multiple courses of antibiotics can make people more sick

Agencies

March 3,2020

Taking multiple courses of antibiotics within a short span of time may do people more harm than good, suggests new research which discovered an association between the number of prescriptions for antibiotics and a higher risk of hospital admissions.

Patients who have had 9 or more antibiotic prescriptions for common infections in the previous three years are 2.26 times more likely to go to hospital with another infection in three or more months, said the researchers.

Patients who had two antibiotic prescriptions were 1.23 times more likely, patients who had three to four prescriptions 1.33 times more likely and patients who had five to eight 1.77 times more likely to go to hospital with another infection.

"We don't know why this is, but overuse of antibiotics might kill the good bacteria in the gut (microbiota) and make us more susceptible to infections, for example," said Professor Tjeerd van Staa from the University of Manchester in Britain.

The study, published in the journal BMC Medicine, is based on the data of two million patients in England and Wales.

The patient records, from 2000 to 2016, covered common infections such as upper respiratory tract, urinary tract, ear and chest infections and excluded long term conditions such as cystic fibrosis and chronic lung disease.

The risks of going to hospital with another infection were related to the number of the antibiotic prescriptions in the previous three years.

A course is defined by the team as being given over a period of one or two weeks.

"GPs (general physicians) care about their patients, and over recent years have worked hard to reduce the prescribing of antibiotics,""Staa said.

"But it is clear GPs do not have the tools to prescribe antibiotics effectively for common infections, especially when patients already have previously used antibiotics.

"They may prescribe numerous courses of antibiotics over several years, which according to our study increases the risk of a more serious infection. That in turn, we show, is linked to hospital admissions," Staa added.

It not clear why hospital admissions are linked to higher prescriptions and research is needed to show what or if any biological factors exist, said the research team.

"Our hope is that, however, a tool we are working for GPs, based on patient history, will be able to calculate the risks associated with taking multiple courses of antibiotics," said Francine Jury from the University of Manchester.

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