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新华网10月11日电 据GIZMODO网站报道，阿尔茨海默病是老年人当中最常见的一种痴呆症，现在它已经成为全球医疗界的挑战了。尽管依然不能根治，但减缓病症的发展可以通过早期的诊断实现。现在，一个来自德国的跨学科研究团队发现，普通的运动传感器可以捕捉到与该种病症相关的体力活动的变化，从而有效争端诊断阿尔茨海默病，并且比现行的任何一种方法都有效。
研究人员将一个有着三坐标轴的加速计量器（这种坐标在任何一个好的健身跟踪器上都可以看到）放在诊断为阿尔茨海默病患者和他们健康的看护人的膝盖上。在对运动数据的盲样分析中，91%的情况下，研究团队可以区分阿尔茨海默病患者和那些健康的可控个体。标准方法是看护人将那些做标记的患者行为变化加在一起，而运动传感器比这更为敏感和精确。
这项研究的设计者，罗斯托克大学的教授斯蒂芬·泰铂表示，这样一种敏感的检测可以让医生更好地监控病情以及医生干预的效果。“我们拥有的方法是比较客观的，它不需要观察者的主观评估。”
要依赖这种方法诊断阿尔茨海默病还需要进行更深入的测试。不过一种简单、便宜可穿戴的，用于检测病情明朗化之前行为变化的设备会给看护老年痴呆症患者的方式带来革命。
译者：余南
百度新闻与新华网国际频道合作稿件，转载请注明出处。
Fitness Tracking Tech Could Be the New Best Way to Diagnose Alzheimer"s
Alzheimer"s disease, the most common form of dementia seen in the elderly, is increasingly becoming a global healthcare challenge. There is still no cure, and therapies that slow symptom progression require early diagnosis to be effective. Now, an interdisciplinary team of German researchers has found that simple motion sensors can pick up the physical activity changes associated with the disease, and even diagnose Alzheimer"s more effectively than current methods.
The researchers placed three-axis accelerometers — exactly like you"ll find in any good fitness tracker — on the ankles of diagnosed Alzheimer"s patients and their cognitively healthy caretakers living in the same home. In a blind analysis of the motion data, the team was able to discern Alzheimer"s patients from healthy control subjects 91% of the time — making the motion detectors more sensitive than the standard method, where caregivers tally up the number of hallmark behavioral changes the patient demonstrates.
University of Rostock Professor Stefan Teipel, who designed the study, says that this sensitive detection could give doctors a better way to monitor disease progress and the effectiveness of interventions. "And the measure we obtain is objective, it does not require the assessment by a human observer," he says.
Further testing is needed before this method can be relied on to diagnose Alzheimer"s disease. But a simple, inexpensive wearable device that detects this disease before changes in behavior become apparent could revolutionize the way we care for Alzheimer"s patients. (来源：新华国际)
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