Every 5 minutes, there is a new dementia case reported in Canada, and the annual economic burden of Alzheimer’s disease in Canada is currently $4 billion. These rates are expected to double over the next 20 years. Therefore, any method that can help with early diagnosis, slowing of disease progression and/or delaying disease onset will benefit Canada’s economy enormously.

Zahra Moussavi

Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Biomedical Engineering, Zahra Moussavi, is well on her way to finding innovative ways of detecting early signs of Alzheimer’s in patients with renewed funding of $500,000 over five years as a Tier 2 chair holder from the Canada Research Program.

“Our government is proud to renew funding to top researchers such as Dr. Moussavi. The Canada Research Chairs are driving innovation, addressing health, environmental and social issues, and spurring economic growth in our community—all of which serve to improve the lives of Canadians,” said Rod Bruinooge, Member of Parliament, Winnipeg South.

In addition to detection of early signs of Alzheimer’s, Moussavi is also developing innovative approaches for Alzheimer’s treatment to either improve patient symptoms or slow the disease’s progression. She uses naturalistic virtual reality navigational assessment for Alzheimer’s onset detection and a combination of her own designed mental exercise along with application of repetitive transcranial stimulation (rTMS) to the brain.

“Dr. Moussavi’s research will be further enhanced by this renewed funding and holds the key to better diagnosis and treatment for Alzheimer’s and sleep apnea patients everywhere,” Digvir Jayas, vice-president (research and international) and Distinguished Professor at the University of Manitoba.

Another main focus of Moussavi’s research is in the area of the detection and monitoring of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). About 10 per cent of, or 3.3 million, Canadians are thought to have sleep apnea without being aware of it. However, OSA is massively underdiagnosed. This serious and common problem results in airflow to the lungs being cut off for at least 10 seconds, and is associated with a significant drop in the blood’s oxygen level. OSA increases a person’s risk of insulin resistance, abdominal obesity and other factors linked to cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure. Currently, OSA can be detected by full-night sleep studies. Moussavi’s goal is to develop a methodology to detect this disorder by analysis of breathing sounds during wakefulness. This work will result in a method to help doctors to identify risk of severe OSA during wakefulness without the need of time consuming and expensive sleep studies.

There are currently 46 CRCs at the University of Manitoba.

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