Alzheimer's is a neurological illness that comes with little or no warning.
To help people figure out their own risk of the disease, Korean researchers have used big data to build a program that compares a patient's brain with ones known to be healthy.
Cho Sung-min reports.
Alzheimer's is the most common cause of dementia in South Korea.
It starts to develop when the brain is damaged... which usually occurs through natural aging, head injuries, and genetic reasons.
Experts say even an MRI scan doesn't do much to help spot it,... especially if it's just starting to develop.
To prevent Alzheimer's from advancing too much before it's found and treated,... local researchers have developed a program that can calculate your risk of getting it.
The program scans an image of your brain and compares it to those of more than ten thousand Alzheimer's-free people who are at least 60 years old.
Using an algorithm, the program analyzes the difference between your brain and these healthy brains.
The developers say their program's accuracy has been proven through multiple tests.
"The program breaks down the images to a scale of less than zero-point-one milimeters,... so it spots everything. It has a successful Alzheimer's prediction rate of more than ninety percent,... and more than sixty percent accuracy in spotting mild cognitive impairment."
Currently, it's being used on a trial basis by six university hospitals across the nation, and the team says it's looking at ways to export the product to other countries in Northeast Asia.
Cho Sung-min, arirang news.
