Brain Age Model for Chemotherapy Cognitive Assessment

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current methods for predicting dementia progression and evaluating therapeutic effects in cognitive impairment patients are limited by reliance on clinician judgment, cultural biases, and inaccuracies in diffusion MRI data due to artefacts, particularly susceptibility-induced distortions, which affect the accuracy of dementia severity assessment and treatment response prediction.

Innovation Solution

A method using microstructural features of white matter from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to calculate a brain age score, which predicts cognitive decline and treatment outcomes by associating white matter predicted age difference (WM PAD) with clinical dementia rating (CDR) scores, and correcting diffusion MRI artefacts using a novel registration-based method that models intensity biases.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If diffusion MRI data is used to assess dementia severity, then objective measurement is improved, but accuracy deteriorates due to susceptibility-induced distortions and artefacts

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedementia severity assessment accuracyVSAvoiddiffusion MRI data reliability

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) to identify and map susceptibility-induced distortions in diffusion MRI data. By converting the harmful artefacts into visible patterns through SWI, the system can then locate and correct these distortions, transforming the previously harmful susceptibility effects into a beneficial tool for quality control and data correction in dementia assessment

Inventive Principle:

Principle #22Blessing in disguise (Convert harm into benefit)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces SWI as an intermediary modality between the diffusion MRI data and the final dementia assessment. The SWI data serves as a mediator to identify susceptibility artefacts, which then guides the correction process applied to the diffusion MRI data, ensuring more reliable and accurate dementia severity measurements

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Adaptability or versatility

If clinician judgment is used to assess cognitive function, then cultural adaptability is improved, but objectivity deteriorates due to subjective biases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecultural adaptability in cognitive assessmentVSAvoidcognitive function assessment objectivity

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the cognitive assessment into multiple independent components: diffusion MRI data processing, SWI artefact identification, quantitative metric calculation, and final dementia severity classification. This segmentation allows objective computational processing of imaging data while maintaining adaptability in the interpretation framework, reducing clinician bias while preserving cultural adaptability

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces the mechanical system of direct clinician observation and judgment with an automated imaging-based assessment system. By substituting clinician subjectivity with objective diffusion MRI and SWI analysis, the system maintains measurement precision while allowing for cultural adaptability in the implementation and interpretation phases

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Data Source

PatentUS20250017516A1Method for evaluation of chemotherapy effects on cognitive function of cancer patients using brain age model

Publication Date: 2025.01.16 ACROVIZ USA INC

AI summary

A method of predicting an effect of a chemotherapy treatment on a cancer patient's cognitive status using the patient's predicted age difference (PAD) comprises acquiring at least one medical brain image of a patient's brain before a chemotherapy treatment; processing the medical brain image to obtain at least one feature of the image; generating a PAD value of the individual based on the at least one feature of the image; and predicting an effect of the chemotherapy treatment on a cancer patient's cognitive status using the PAD value.