The lack of objective biomarkers of dystonia means that diagnosis can be delayed by up to 10.1 years. At MDS 2020, researchers at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston, USA, reported data on DystoniaNet, a platform by which diagnosis can be made accurately (diagnostic accuracy 98.8%) and rapidly (0.36 seconds).
First, they obtained raw structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from 392 patients with three forms of isolated dystonia (laryngeal, cervical, and blepharospasm) and 220 healthy controls.