Using 3D Facial Mapping technology to screen Dementia related diseases
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating the use of 3D Facial Mapping Technology as an effective screening tool to detect dementia related diseases
IRAS ID
263501
Contact name
Ruth Akiyo Mizoguchi
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
In the UK alone diagnosis of dementia directly costs the NHS 70 million pounds, with indirect costs from late diagnosis costing an additional 2.6 billion pounds. It is clear that the rapidly growing ageing population and its inevitable higher prevalence of dementia will see these costs continue to rise with an even greater pressure for earlier diagnosis and intervention.
Diagnosing dementia and differentiating between the different subtypes of dementia is associated with lengthy and costly clinical diagnostics that rely on the patient’s medical history, clinical diagnostics, neuropsychometric assessment and neural imaging.
Emerging research using Facial Mapping techniques has indicated that micro changes in facial musculature, including specific creases appearing on the ear, specific eye movements and iris changes, may preclude detectable neurodegeneration. Facial Mapping techniques have been used successfully to detect micro-facial expressions to distinguish between patients experiencing different levels of pain leading to the development of the electronic pain assessment tool (ePAT). These techniques have the potential to detect characteristic facial features that would inform the development of a screening tool for early detection of micro-changes and effective discrimination between the dementias.
This study aims to triangulate current clinical diagnostic assessments including medical history, clinical interview, blood tests, imaging and neuropsychological assessment with the use of facial mapping techniques for 75 patients in the memory clinic. The data will be analysed to determine the accuracy of the facial mapping technique to detect characteristic micro-facial features in conjunction with the traditional subjective and objective measures of the clinical diagnosis of dementia and specific dementia subtype.REC name
London - City & East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/LO/0280
Date of REC Opinion
6 Mar 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion