A Web Platform for data acquisition and analysis for Alzheimer's disease

This study introduces a new implementation of a Web Interface and Web Services for the automatic acquisition and processing of data for neurological studies, with a focus on Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Our Web Platform consists of (a) a Data Upload module that provides forms and web services to store volumetric and surface area measures, derived from MRI, to a MySQL database; (b) a Web Interface and Web Services for classification of AD, utilizing Support Vector Machines (SVM). The MRI is processed with FreeSurfer (FS); the FS output is also made available to the Web Interface user. Our classifier was trained and tested with data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database, and private data obtained from the Wien Center for Alzheimer's Disease and Memory Disorders at Mount Sinai Medical Center; with results comparable to other published studies. The design of the proposed Web Platform is scalable and can be easily adapted to other neurological disorders.