New NIH-funded smartphone app can diagnose aggressive dementia suffered by ... trends now
A new smartphone app could diagnose people with a rare early-onset dementia suffered by Bruce Willis and Wendy Williams, years before symptoms manifest.
Researchers at the University of California developed an app that uses memory and sorting games to detect signs of dementia with similar accuracy to tests used by doctors.
The condition, frontotemporal dementia (FTD), accounts for fewer than one in 30 dementia cases and is primarily suffered by adults ages 45 to 65.
It involves characteristic features including behavioral and personality changes that can be easily mistaken for psychiatic illness.
The app accurately distinguished between people with FTD and those without 93 percent of the time,
The smartphone app was able to differentiate between people with FTD and those without it with 93 percent accuracy, which is roughly the same proficiency as standard tests.
It was also able to identify any memory loss with 82 percent accuracy, roughly the same as standard diagnostic tests.
FTD is not well understood, and researchers hope that the app they have developed will lead the way for further studies into the disease and the 50-60,000 people suffering from it in the US.
The app is not expected to be made available to the public, but rather to dementia research teams.
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) presents differently from other types of dementia, which normally starts with memory and cognition problems.
People with FTD first show emotional and behavioral problems, such as stealing, swearing, inappropriate comments in public, impulsivity, and repetitive behaviors.
It can also show itself in the form of aphasia, which affects language skills, speaking, writing, and comprehension. Both Bruce Willis and Wendy Williams are said to have been diagnosed with aphasia.
Actor Bruce Willis' family announced last year that he was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) - less than one year after he retired from acting due to his battle with aphasia, a speech and language disorder
In the study, 360 people who were genetically predisposed to the disease but had not yet developed symptoms performed tests of executive function, such as planning and prioritizing, filtering distractions, and controlling impulses.
The participants played the games via an app co-developed by software company Datacubed Health.
The games were played over 11 days in three separate sessions, each lasting around half an hour.
One specific test was conducted every six months to counter any improvement that may come with practice.
The average age of the players was 54. Out of those with available data, 59 percent were without symptoms, 20 percent were in the early stages of the disease, and 21 percent were symptomatic.
About 45 percent of the participants who underwent genetic testing carried a gene variant linked to the disease.
Users played games that gathered information about
