High-tech helmet for diagnosing age-related diseases

Patients with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and epilepsy could benefit from real-time, dynamic brain scans by wearing a tiny, fully digital positron emission tomography (PET) scanner that fits on a helmet, according to researchers in China who have developed the world’s first active monitoring device.

The portable, hemispherical digital helmet scanners have been developed by researchers at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, Hubei Province, and are currently in the process of obtaining registration certificates as medical devices in China.

The researchers say patients only need to sit down and put on a helmet to undergo the imaging test — similar to getting a permanent wave at a beauty salon — and users can complete the roughly 10-minute examination process using their mobile phone if they choose.

The helmet scanner was developed by Zhang Min and Zhu Xiaohua, professors at Tongji Hospital, which is affiliated with Tongji Medical College of HUST, and Nicola D’Ascenzo, professor at the College of Life Science and Technology of HUST. The two teams of developers began research and development on the innovative product in 2019, they said.

The brain is composed of billions of neurons and complex neural networks, and the high complexity of the structure and function of gray matter has always been a challenge for medical research and development.

To date, devices that can reflect the anatomical structure of the brain include head computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and PET scans. However, head CT and MRI scans can only produce images and cannot observe the metabolic activity of the brain, which has certain limitations in the study and treatment of major brain diseases.

“The helmet scanner can better adapt to the shape of the head, adjust the angle as needed, improve the coverage and obtain more effective data. So far, we have conducted 100 clinical experiments with the first generation of the device on healthy people, people with mild cognitive impairment and those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The helmet scanner can also help detect intracranial tumors and is used in neurological research because the device can help convert metabolic information into digital information,” Zhang said.

Unlike CT and MRI scanners, which require large, stationary machines and require patients to lie flat and still during the scan, a helmet scanner can perform dynamic brain scans in real time while patients are in various positions, regardless of location or proximity constraints.

The researchers said they are actively optimizing the performance of the helmet scanner to achieve the next stage of technological transformation. The scanner can move with the head and realize continuous detection of brain functionality.

“Realizing digitization at the very beginning of detection is essential for the simple design of the helmet scanner. The device is fully digitized, and the information is presented in a readable format,” said Li Bingxuan, an assistant professor at the Institute of Artificial Intelligence at Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, who also participated in the R&D work of the device.

China is an increasingly aging society, with a growing senior population. The number of people aged 60 and older reached 296.97 million at the end of last year, or 21.1 percent of the total population, the National Bureau of Statistics said, and demand for medical devices that help detect related diseases is growing.

Experts say the helmet scanner is expected to provide significant support for early diagnosis, monitoring drug efficacy and developing new drugs to address neurodegenerative diseases in an ageing population, and will likely provide neuroscientists with cutting-edge methods to explore previously unexplored areas.