Biomedical Engineering, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T5V6, Canada.
Med Biol Eng Comput. 2022 Feb;60(2):501-509. doi: 10.1007/s11517-021-02478-9. Epub 2022 Jan 11.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a growing global crisis. Egocentric spatial orientation deteriorates with age and more significantly with AD. A simple and quick virtual reality (VR) localization and target finding technique is presented as a diagnostic aid to screen mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from AD. Spatial orientation data from 93 individuals (65 AD at a mild stage, 20 MCI, and 8 other dementia types) based on VR localization of a target on a landmark-less cubic 3-story building were analyzed. We hypothesize AD and MCI groups' performances are significantly different. AD and MCI spatial performances were statistically significantly (p < 0.001) different. These results plus the longitudinal tracking of three patients who developed AD over a period of 5 years suggest the proposed spatial tests may be used as a quick and simple clinical diagnostic aid to separate AD at early to mild stages from MCI.
阿尔茨海默病（AD）是一个日益严重的全球危机。以自我为中心的空间定位随着年龄的增长而恶化，在 AD 中更为明显。本文提出了一种简单快速的虚拟现实（VR）定位和目标发现技术，作为一种诊断辅助手段，用于从 AD 中筛选轻度认知障碍（MCI）。基于无地标三维三层建筑上目标的 VR 定位，分析了 93 个人的数据（65 名轻度 AD 患者、20 名 MCI 患者和 8 名其他类型痴呆症患者）。我们假设 AD 和 MCI 组的表现有显著差异。AD 和 MCI 的空间表现有统计学意义（p<0.001）。这些结果加上对三名在 5 年内发展为 AD 的患者的纵向跟踪表明，所提出的空间测试可作为一种快速简单的临床诊断辅助手段，用于将早期至轻度 AD 与 MCI 分开。
