Investigating the Conversion Between Mild Cognitive Impairment and the Alzheimer’s Disease using Artificial Intelligence
Alzheimer's disease negatively affects the life quality of millions in our country and worldwide. Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a stage that impairs patients' cognitive abilities while their daily activities are not severely affected. Some MCI patients develop Alzheimer's disease after a while. The exact cause of this transition is unknown. For this reason, early prediction of Alzheimer's disease is vital to improving patients' quality of life. In addition, understanding the factors that cause this transition enables patient-specific and effective treatments that alleviate the financial burden on countries' healthcare systems. Therefore, it is essential to examine the structure of different patient groups and the cause of the conversion from MCI to Alzheimer's. This project aims to develop a machine learning-based healthcare system that facilitates the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease by determining the variables and interactions that cause the transition between MCI and Alzheimer's. For this purpose, we will model the conversion between MCI to Alzheimer's by designing classification and clustering models compatible with different data types. The proposed methods will be developed and tested using databases in the literature and a local database created during this project. Clinical interpretation of the project outcomes and deploying the proposed healthcare system in real-life scenarios will be conducted under the guidance of neurologists at the University of Health Sciences Sultan Abdulhamid Khan Educational and Research Hospital in İstanbul.
Principal Investigator: İnci M. Baytaş
