Initiated in 2018 with support from the National Institute of Aging, Advanced Brain Monitoring formed an international research consortium to assist in the validation of sleep biomarkers for use in phenotyping specific neurodegenerative disorders.
Our recent manuscripts describe the discovery of a new biomarker called non-REM hypertonia (NRH). We evaluated NRH in its relationship to REM sleep without atonia and studied how NRH relates to sleep spindle activity and autonomic dysregulation. A strong association between sleep and wake EEG slowing attributed to neurodegeneration was also discovered.
We cross-validated the automated staging accuracy in patients with isolated REM sleep behavior disorder and investigated whether a biomarker developed to detect ICU delirium, called atypical N3 sleep, was able to asses altered mental status in patients with Lewy body dementia.
The association between supine sleep and neurodegenerative disorders we first reported in 2019 was confirmed in independent cohorts with Lewy body disease, Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment. A proposed mechanism of action, as well as a strong relationship between supine sleep and disease duration and motor impairment in Parkinson’s patients further supports our initial finding.
In community-based surveys we conducted, 87% of older adults want to know if they are at-risk for a neurodegenerative disorder, with 86% agreeing it would help them plan for the future. These surveys also identified what physicians should and should not do to assist their patients in matters relating to neurodegenerative disorders.
After validating each of nine sleep biomarkers, we applied artificial intelligence to derive neurodegenerative disorder risk probabilities for the categories normal, Lewy body disorder, Alzheimer’s disorder, or prodromal synucleinopathy and cross validated the risk and severity predictions in a range of at-risk patient populations.
The 20-min video below summarizes the accuracy and reliability of the neurodegenerative disorder risk and severity assessment and changes that occur in at-risk patients. The 40-minute video provides an in-depth description of our sleep biomarkers and findings associated with each.
