Takao Yamazaki, an academic researcher at the Graduate School of Medicine, Kyushu University, and Professor Shozo Tobimatsu announced that they have discovered an early diagnostic biomarker for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) through joint research with the forgetfulness outpatient department of the university hospital.It is harmless to the body, low cost and reliable.
So far, cerebrospinal fluid test and amyloid imaging (testing the amount of amyloid accumulated in the brain, which is a causative agent of Alzheimer's disease) have been reported as early diagnostic biomarkers.However, invasiveness and cost issues have been pointed out, and the ideal biomarker has not yet been established.
When a person moves straight, a radial movement of the outside world occurs on the retina, which is called optic flow (OF).In 2012, the research group reported using evoked EEG that the brain response to OF was specifically reduced in MCI patients in the preparatory group for dementia.This time, we further developed the study and found that OF stimulation can distinguish between MCI patients and healthy elderly people with high specificity and high sensitivity in a new patient group.
Based on the results of this study, the induced EEG test is not harmful to the body and is an inexpensive and reliable early diagnosis biomarker for MCI.In addition, lost children and dangerous driving in dementia patients have become social problems, but since these are related to OF perception disorders, it is expected that this method can also be used to determine the likelihood of lost children and dangerous driving. Will be done.
In the future, he says he wants to contribute to preemptive medicine by building a system that can detect dementia reserve groups at an earlier stage than MCI (before clinical symptoms appear).
