welcome to the organic green doctor blog

i am a family physician who was diagnosed with
early mild cognitive impairment(mci) amnestic type on december 21, 2010
this is a precursor to alzheimers disease
because of this diagnosis i have opted to stop practicing medicine
this blog will be about my journey with this disease
please feel free to follow me along this path
i will continue blogging on organic gardening, green living,
solar power, rainwater collection, and healthy living
i will blog on these plus other things noted to be interesting

Friday, January 4, 2019

alzheimers news-ai can tell

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-AI CAN TELL
Image result for organicgreendoctor
ai stands for artificial intelligence
like watson the ibm computer

i watched watson battle it out with the two top human contestants on jeopardy
watson easily won the battle
he started slow but then just rapidly started answering all the questions

the first research study i was in was the adni 2 study
adni stands for alzheimers disease neuroimaging initiative
i was in the study for 5 years
i had
serial memory testings such as the moca and mmse and neuropsychological exams
my memory tests were abnormal for a couple of years then have gradually returned to being near normal since then

serial blood test checking my dna rna chemistry profile blood counts urine tests and genetic tests
i carry the apoe 4 homozygous gene ie i have apoe 4/apoe 4 the double version
its called the late onset alzheimers gene

serial mris
mine were all normal

a PET scan of the brain of a person with Alzheimer's disease
ucsf article on using ai
serial glucose metabolism pet scan like the one above where i was given radioactive glucose before the scan
the working brain cells took up the radioactive glucose and showed up as red highlighted areas
the nonworking brain cells did not take up the radioactive glucose and showed up as blue areas
my pet scans for glucose were normal
which is common early on in the disease
later on maybe now it will or would be abnormal

two spinal taps for amyloid protein and tau protein
these levels become abnormal in alzheimers disease
i had mine done in a private lab and it was abnormal

i had one amyloid pet scan called the amyvid pet scan
if you have alzheimers disease that scan will be positive
i dont know that result on the first one
i have had two since then
although i havent seen the last two results i know they are positive since i am not allowed in the present study im in called the biogens aducanumab study unless im positive
if my drug works my last amyvid pet scan to be done in 15 months may be read as negative

there are around 1200+ of us that were in the adni 2 study from all over the us and the world
so at ucsf
they took artificial intelligence
ie
one of watsons buddies to look at all the scans

well mr watsons buddies were able to predict with a high degree of accuracy 90+ that some folks had or would have alzheimers disease
they were able to predict this 6 years before the disease showed up
how
by recognizing subtle real subtle changes in serial scans that humans couldnt recognize using an algorithm the scientists designed

so
one day when you go to the neurologist for early memory loss the neurologist will say
well id like you to meet my friend
watson
its elementary my friend

early diagnosis leads to early treatment
we are close to having treatments soon

the organicgreen doctor

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