Cerebral Assessment Systems – Reinventing Alzheimer’s Diagnosis

Our computer based systems provide a quick, accurate, non-invasive, and low cost method for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and for precise measurement of disease progression

Today, physicians lack suitable tools to diagnose AD early and to measure accurately treatment effectiveness. The absence of an effective measurement tool for AD has been a major obstacle to progress for Alzheimer’s patients. Often they go on therapy later than may be optimal or unnecessarily continue therapy which produces no benefit. New therapies take longer and cost more to be evaluated. CAS changes all of that.

CAS technology was developed by Professor Charles Duffy, MD, PhD, a neurologist specializing in Alzheimer’s disease research and care at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Based on over a decade of NIH funded research, it is a breakthrough advance in the early detection and measurement of Alzheimer’s disease. With an aging population, physicians are increasingly struggling to help patients and their families distinguish between normal brain aging and AD. In addition to providing a much needed solution for these doctors, CAS technology is also a powerful tool to accelerate the development of new therapies.

CAS Testing Systems

CAS Testing systems are psychophysical tests which quantitatively characterizes brain function. CAS functional profiles can detect deviations from healthy brain aging that may lead to the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Through early detection, CAS enables healthcare providers to work with their patients to sustain brain health and independent living.

The full CAS test battery is rapid (~15 mins), comprehensive (many functional domains), and non-invasive. CAS testing is not dependent on literacy, computer proficiency, and is language and culturally independent. CAS systems require minimal supervision for automated test administration and immediate report generation.

CAS test batteries include:

CASscan

CASscan presents a series of video and audio stimuli to measure the function of discrete brain systems affected in the earliest stage of Alzheimer’s disease before symptoms arise. Computer controlled stimulation is combined with the recording of rotary joystick responses to create multi-dimensional profiles of each patient’s functional capacities.

In 15 minutes of CASscan testing, healthcare providers can non-invasively derive a patient’s brain functional profile for the automated detection of deviations from age normal performance and comparison to testing tracked over time and across therapies. Though the CAS system collects volumonous data on localized and integrative cortical function., it provides out the test results in a clear, consise results with the key information the clinicial needs to make decisions and communicate most productively with the patient.

CASnavi

CASnavi is a virtual reality navigational assessment tool that identifies functionally significant impairment in the domains of navigation and spatial orientation. A laptop PC presents a virtual naturalistic environments followed by a series of tests that characterize aspects of navigational cue processing and have been shown to be predictive of real-world navigation.

CASscan enables care providers to mechanistically characterize impairments and monitor treatment efficacy. CASnavi identifies patients in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease and quantifies their navigational abilities. Both CASscan and CASnavi are operational at networked research sites.

Brief Description of CAS Technology

CAS technology is based on new methods for assessing neural systems developed in the laboratories of Prof. Charles J. Duffy at the University of Rochester Medical Center. The approach consists of the precisely controlled presentation of visual and auditory stimuli while recording subject’s responses to particular stimulus parameters. A battery of test modules has been designed to isolate and quantify human functional capacities across a broad range of functional domains. All tests are administered on a computer video display and a closed-circuit audio binaural headset. Screening for neural systems impairments requires ~20 minutes of testing.

Origins of CASscan Testing

In the past decade, original neuroscientific research by Dr. Charles Duffy at the University of Rochester Medical Center has led to the development of an automated system for the psychophysical assessment of brain functions impaired in brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease. This system has been validated in studies of older adults and AD patients and found to be: 1) a sensitive detector of late-life neural processing decline, and 2) a sensitive measure of independent navigational capacity in real-world environments.

Cerebral Assessment Systems has produced and tested a portable implementation of the psychophysical and navigational testing systems using computer systems and specialized software. CASscan has proven suitable for applications in physician’s office practices, hospital out-patient facilities, and in home health care settings. The system is used by minimally trained medical office or clinical services support staff who register test patients on the system and initiate the automated administration of psychophysical and navigational testing.