We need to catch serious blood disease earlier
Associate Professor Maja Ludvigsen from Aarhus University has been awarded DKK 2.6 million by the Danish Cancer Society to develop a new method that will make it easier and secure earlier diagnosis of the malignant blood disease - myelodysplastic syndrome.
Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is characterised by malfunctioning bone marrow, which leads to anaemia in those afflicted by the disease. Currently, bone marrow changes are diagnosed by means of a microscopy study of approximately 500 cells, but diagnosis is difficult, even for specialists, especially in the event of slight changes in the shape and appearance of the cells.
Maja Ludvigsen of the Department of Clinical Medicine therefore aims to develop a new image-based method for diagnosis. Here, more than 100,000 cells are analysed using artificial intelligence, with the goal of identifying bone marrow changes at an early stage. In this way, doctors will be able to predict which patients are at risk of developing MDS, and reject an MDS diagnosis in patients who do not have MDS-related changes.
Contact
Associate Professor and PhD Maja Ludvigsen
Aarhus University, Department of Clinical Medicine and
Aarhus University Hospital, Department of Haematology
Mobile: +45 2285 9523
E-mail: majlud@clin.au.dk