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February 2008

Because o its length and expense, the test is notused as a regular screening tool and typicallyis given only ater there is obvious cognitiveimpairment such as orgetulness or unsaebehavior.

“Families usually wait until their mom ordad does something somewhat dangerous, likeorgetting to take their medications or gettinglost, beore bringing them in or testing. At thatpoint, the patient has already lost a signicantportion o their cognitive unction,” said Dr.David Wright, who helped develop the device.

 Wright is assistant proessor o emergencymedicine at Emory University School o Medicineand co-director o the Emory Emergency

 Medicine Research Center. “With this device,we might be able to pick up impairment well

beore those serious symptoms occur and startpatients on medications that could delay thosesymptoms.”

The Georgia Tech/Emory device, calledDETECT, gives individuals a roughly 10-minute test designed to gauge reactiontime and memory – unctions that, whenimpaired, are associated with the earlieststages o Alzheimer’s disease. The test is aspecially modied, shortened version o thetraditional pen-and-paper test and could be

given repeatedly by doctors to evaluate anychanges in cognitive unctions.

“We really envision this to be part o the normal preventative care a patientreceives rom a general practitioner,” saidDr. Michelle LaPlaca , one o the creatorso the device and an associate proessorin the Wallace H. Coulter Department o Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and

See “ DETECT ,” Page 2

The latest medications can delay the onseto Alzheimer’s disease, but none are ableto reverse its devastating eects. This

limitation oten makes early detection the key to Alzheimer’s patients maintaining a good qualityo lie or as long as possible.

Now, a new device developed by Georgia

Tech and Emory University may allow patientsto take a brie, inexpensive test that couldbe administered as part o a routine yearlycheckup at a doctor’s oce to detect mildcognitive impairment (MCI) – oten the earlieststage o Alzheimer’s. Researchers expect tocommercialize the device later this year.

Current assessment tests capable o detectingearly Alzheimer’s typically are taken with a penand paper or at a computer terminal and last

about 90 minutes. The test must be given bya trained technician in a quiet environment,because any distractions can infuence thepatient’s score and reduce the test’s eectiveness.

Portable Device Quickly Detects Alzheimer’s Early Stages

The DETECT system includes an LCD display in a visor with an

onboard dedicated computer and noise reduction headphones.

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Emory University. “It would be part o a regularpreventative medicine exam much like a PSA test or EKG (electrocardiogram), serving as a

cognitive-impairment vital sign o sorts.”

The portable test runs patients througha battery o visual and auditory stimuli suchas pictures and words that assess cognitive

abilities relative to age, gauging reaction timeand memory capabilities. Its sotware cantrack cognitive capabilities – and their decline– year to year during annual appointments. Andbecause the device blocks outside sound andlight rom the patient’s environment, it can beadministered in virtually any setting, providingmore consistent results.

Preliminary analysis o the rst 100 patientso a 400-person clinical study being conductedat Emory’s Wesley Woods Center has shown that

the 10-minute DETECT test has similar accuracyto the 90-minute “Gold Standard” pen-and-papertest.

DETECT Continued from P. 1  With millions o baby boomers easing intolate adulthood, the number o patients with

 Alzheimer’s is expected to skyrocket overthe next ew decades. More than 24 million

people worldwide are currently thought to have Alzheimer’s disease and by 2040, anestimated 81 million people worldwideare expected to develop the disease.

To give these millions o potential Alzheimer’s suerers a chance to slow the disease’s advance beore serioussymptoms set in, doctors need aninexpensive and easy-to-administer testto detect and track the cognitive declineassociated with the early stages o the

disease.The DETECT device is designed

to be administered while a patient isstill healthy, tracking any abnormaldecreases in the patient’s cognitiveperormance over time. I a patient’s

perormance declines outside the normal range,the patient would then undergo additional testingand care rom a neurologist, neuropsychologistor other specialist.

Georgia Tech and Emory researchers areexploring other types o cognitive impairmentsuch as Attention Decit/Hyperactivity Disorder(ADHD) that could be picked up by DETECT.

 A version o the system designed to detectmild concussions on the sidelines o a ootballgame, during other high-impact sports or on abattleeld, is still being tested.

The Georgia Tech/Emory research wasunded with a grant rom the Wallace H. CoulterFoundation and support rom the Georgia

Research Alliance through Georgia Tech’s VentureLab. Q

he DETECT visor’s LCD display.