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.
In a study from the University of Tsukuba and elsewhere, scientists found that the characteristics of patients’ drawing processes 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 disorder.
In the study, the team asked patients with AD and DLB to use an electronic tablet and pen to complete digital versions of conventional drawing tests, such as drawing a clockface and copying pentagon patterns.
They found that DLB patients showed differences from healthy controls in speed-, pressure-, and pause-related features, whereas AD patients showed differences in only pause-related features.
These discriminative differences in features characterizing the drawing process reflected the cognitive and motor impairments in AD and DLB.
These features were combined into a machine-learning model to classify patients according to their drawing profiles.
The model discriminated the three groups with high accuracy, and importantly, the AD patients from LBD patients.
The team found different drawing tasks played determinant roles in classifying different pairs of these three diagnostic groups.
This is the first study to highlight the usefulness of combining multiple drawing tasks for enabling both the identification and differentiation of AD and DLB.
The team’s next step is to explore pathological biomarkers, which may reveal unique signatures of drawing impairments that are reflective of underlying pathologies in AD and DLB.
If you care about brain health, please read studies about how the Mediterranean diet could protect your brain health, and scientists find a possible way to delay or reverse Alzheimer’s disease.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies about Vitamin D deficiency linked to higher dementia risk, and these antioxidants could help reduce dementia risk.
The study was conducted by Professor Tetsuaki Arai et al and published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
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