Breathe early will betray Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease affects approximately 1% of the population between the ages of 40 and 60. It also happens in younger people.

Accurate and early diagnosis can be difficult because motor symptoms (tremor at rest, muscle stiffness, bradykinesia - ie slowness and impaired movements) often appear several years after the onset of the disease. On the other hand, the symptoms preceding the disease are very nonspecific (personality stiffness, depression, constipation, seborrheic dermatitis, paresthesia of the extremities, olfactory disorders).

The relationship between Parkinson's disease and breathing was noticed as early as 1817 in the work of Dr. James Parkinson. This motivated us to consider the possibility of detecting the disease from the breath. Some studies have shown that respiratory symptoms appear many years before motor symptoms, says Prof. Dina Katabi of MIT, lead author of the study.

Previously, scientists tested the potential for early detection of Parkinson's disease based on cerebrospinal fluid and neuroimaging, but collecting this fluid is invasive, and neuroimaging is expensive and requires access to specialized medical centers.

Now, MIT specialists have shown that artificial intelligence can be used to assess the breathing pattern at home, while the patient is asleep and without physical contact.

The device looks like a Wi-Fi router and works by emitting radio signals and analyzing their reflections from the surroundings, extracting the breathing patterns of the examined person from the incoming signal. The data is then passed on to the neural network to assess the risk of developing Parkinson's disease.

Sources: MIT/PharmaTimes