charles taylor via Getty
Parkinson’s is one of the most common—and destructive—neurodegenerative diseases in the world. In the U.S., more than a million people will be diagnosed with the disorder each year, resulting in the loss of motor functions, cognition, and memory.
Part of the reason it’s so destructive is that common symptoms like body tremors often don’t appear until years into the disease’s progression. By then, “the brain has already been very damaged,” MIT computer scientist Dina Katabi told The Daily Beast. However, she said that there is one way to potentially catch it early—and that’s by observing a patient’s breathing. This can help doctors treat the disease before the more harmful symptoms crop up—and give you a better chance at fighting it.
That’s why, in a study published Monday in the paper Nature Medicine, Katabi and her fellow researchers at MIT trained an AI to observe and analyze a sleeping patient’s breathing patterns to detect neurodegenerative disease. The bot can also detect how severe a person’s Parkinson’s is, allowing doctors to tailor treatments to a person’s needs. The findings could help detect the disease earlier in patients, while also help track its progress over time.
Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here