IISc's Alzheimer's study goes mobile

A light commercial vehicle is set to give a long-running study on Alzheimer’s at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) a much-needed boost.

The 10-year study — currently midway through its progress, having started in 2015 — needs volunteers for testing. But many are unwilling to brave the traffic to come to the IISc. Enter the Alzheimer’s Diagnosis Unit.

The inclusion of the vehicle in the study could see the institute have better access to volunteers participating in the study, said a researcher involved in the project. The accelerated data collection could help diagnose the disease earlier and faster.

“This means a better buildup of data to determine the rate of decline of cognition in affected people,” he added.

Currently, the study, which is being carried out by a five-member team from IISc’s Centre for Brain Research (CBR), has 450 test volunteers across Bengaluru.

“We ideally need a sample size of 1,000 volunteers and are working to attain that number. But with many existing and potential future volunteers unwilling to brave Bengaluru traffic to come to the IISc for their annual testing, the van becomes important. It allows the research team to visit volunteers in their homes,” the researcher said.

The vehicle — which was obtained 15 days ago by an autonomous unit at CBR called the Tata Longitudinal Study of Ageing — boasts of an electrocardiogram (ECG) and an autorefractor eye-checking machine.

“Anybody above the age of 45 can volunteer. The only criteria is that they should have good hearing, either naturally or through a hearing aid,” the researcher said. He added that the van could potentially also address another pitfall of present-day diagnosis: the late identification of the disease in people.

According to the CBR, India and China are set to have the largest number of Alzheimer’s patients owing to their large populations.