Scientists report they have developed a new method that can anticipate dementia up to nine years before diagnosis, with an 80% accuracy rate.
The study, which was led by Professor Charles Marshall, inspected brain scans from over 1,100 individuals from UK Biobank, a database offering genetic and health data from half a million UK residents. Out of 103 persons diagnosed with dementia, 81 had undergone brain scans between five months and 8.5 years before official diagnosis. The findings indicated that their brain scans displayed less connectivity in the default mode network compared to those who did not go on to develop dementia.
Prof Marshall, who spearheaded the research at Queen Mary's Wolfson Institute of Population Health, emphasised the importance of early detection: "Predicting who is going to get dementia in the future will be vital for developing treatments that can prevent the irreversible loss of brain cells that causes the symptoms of dementia."