Prevalentie van epilepsie en slaapstoornissen in de ziekte van Alzheimer.

From 01-10-2018 to 30-09-2022

Description

 Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease causing dementia, and one of the leading causes of death1. Currently, there is no curative therapy for AD. In view of the aging population, dementia is becoming a major health issue, with an important impact on society and a heavy burden on health financing in Belgium2. Epilepsy and sleep-wake disturbances are common co-morbid conditions in AD, which may be responsible for progressive Attachment 3, W Van Paesschen et al, epilepsy and sleep-wake disturbances in Alzheimer’s disease, 2 deterioration of AD. They affect cognition, behavior and caregiving, and are cited as the main reason to institutionalize the elderly. Therefore, they have a huge impact on the economical and societal burden of dementia. Epilepsy and sleep-wake disturbances are, however, the most underestimated issues in dementia, and thus also the field where we can help patients and caregivers the most. Our aim is to develop a wearable tool for reliable, multimodal electro-encephalography (EEG) and sleep monitoring in the home setting. As wearable sensor technologies for physiological signals are currently not accurate enough for medical purposes (but will be improved significantly in the coming years by hardware manufacturers), we will first focus in this project on clinical knowledge insights and algorithm development for automated data processing based on standard measurement equipment for hospital/home monitoring. This will allow us in a later phase to follow large cohorts over prolonged times and thus obtain the first clear and complete map of epilepsy and sleep-wake disturbances in patients with AD. Our ultimate goal is to improve the outcome of patients with AD by early treatment of epilepsy and restoring sleep-wake disturbances. 

Team

• Maarten De Vos, Co-promoter
• Wim Van Paesschen, Coordinator (External)
• Steven Vandeput, Proposal Manager
• Sabine Van Huffel, Team member

Financing

Funding: KU Leuven - Internal Funding KU Leuven

Program/Grant Type: C2 - KU Leuven Category 2 Funding