Objective: Novel subcutaneous electroencephalography (sqEEG) systems enable prolonged, near-continuous cerebral monitoring in real-world conditions. Nevertheless, the feasibility, acceptability and overall clinical utility of these systems remains unclear. We report on the longest observational study using ultra long-term sqEEG to date.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Over recent years, there has been a growing interest in exploring the utility of seizure risk forecasting, particularly how it could improve quality of life for people living with epilepsy. This study reports on user experiences and perspectives of a seizure risk forecaster app, as well as the potential impact on mood and adjustment to epilepsy.
Methods: Active app users were asked to complete a survey (baseline and 3-month follow-up) to assess perspectives on the forecast feature as well as mood and adjustment.
Objective: This work aims to determine the ambulatory video electroencephalography monitoring (AVEM) duration and number of captured seizures required to resolve different clinical questions, using a retrospective review of ictal recordings.
Methods: Patients who underwent home-based AVEM had event data analyzed retrospectively. Studies were grouped by clinical indication: differential diagnosis, seizure type classification, or treatment assessment.
Background: Seizure risk forecasting could reduce injuries and even deaths in people with epilepsy. There is great interest in using non-invasive wearable devices to generate forecasts of seizure risk. Forecasts based on cycles of epileptic activity, seizure times or heart rate have provided promising forecasting results.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Previous studies suggested that patients with epilepsy might be able to forecast their own seizures. This study aimed to assess the relationships between premonitory symptoms, perceived seizure risk, and future and recent self-reported and electroencephalographically (EEG)-confirmed seizures in ambulatory patients with epilepsy in their natural home environments.
Methods: Long-term e-surveys were collected from patients with and without concurrent EEG recordings.
Epilepsy patients often experience acute repetitive seizures, known as seizure clusters, which can progress to prolonged seizures or status epilepticus if left untreated. Predicting the onset of seizure clusters is crucial to enable patients to receive preventative treatments. Additionally, studying the patterns of seizure clusters can help predict the seizure type (isolated or cluster) after observing a just occurred seizure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The factors that influence seizure timing are poorly understood, and seizure unpredictability remains a major cause of disability. Work in chronobiology has shown that cyclical physiological phenomena are ubiquitous, with daily and multiday cycles evident in immune, endocrine, metabolic, neurological, and cardiovascular function. Additionally, work with chronic brain recordings has identified that seizure risk is linked to daily and multiday cycles in brain activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Previous studies suggested that patients with epilepsy might be able to fore-cast their own seizures. We sought to assess the relationships of premonitory symptoms and perceived seizure risk with future and recent self-reported and EEG-confirmed seizures in the subjects living with epilepsy in their natural home environments.
Methods: We collected long-term e-surveys from ambulatory patients with and without concurrent EEG recordings.
Neural processes are complex and difficult to image. This paper presents a new space-time resolved brain imaging framework, called Neurophysiological Process Imaging (NPI), that identifies neurophysiological processes within cerebral cortex at the macroscopic scale. By fitting uncoupled neural mass models to each electromagnetic source time-series using a novel nonlinear inference method, population averaged membrane potentials and synaptic connection strengths are efficiently and accurately inferred and imaged across the whole cerebral cortex at a resolution afforded by source imaging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Conventional methods used to adhere EEG electrodes are often uncomfortable. Here, we present a polymer-based water-soluble EEG adhesive that can be maintained for up to 6 days. The primary outcome measure of this study is the median electrode impedance at day 6.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study describes a generalized cross-patient seizure-forecasting approach using recurrent neural networks with ultra-long-term subcutaneous EEG (sqEEG) recordings. Data from six patients diagnosed with refractory epilepsy and monitored with an sqEEG device were used to develop a generalized algorithm for seizure forecasting using long short-term memory (LSTM) deep-learning classifiers. Electrographic seizures were identified by a board-certified epileptologist.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: One of the most disabling aspects of living with chronic epilepsy is the unpredictability of seizures. Cumulative research in the past decades has advanced our understanding of the dynamics of seizure risk. Technological advances have recently made it possible to record pertinent biological signals, including electroencephalogram (EEG), continuously.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Emerging evidence has shown that ambient air pollution affects brain health, but little is known about its effect on epileptic seizures. This work aimed to assess the association between daily exposure to ambient air pollution and the risk of epileptic seizures.
Methods: This study used epileptic seizure data from two independent data sources (NeuroVista and Seer App seizure diary).
The ability to forecast seizures minutes to hours in advance of an event has been verified using invasive EEG devices, but has not been previously demonstrated using noninvasive wearable devices over long durations in an ambulatory setting. In this study we developed a seizure forecasting system with a long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural network (RNN) algorithm, using a noninvasive wrist-worn research-grade physiological sensor device, and tested the system in patients with epilepsy in the field, with concurrent invasive EEG confirmation of seizures via an implanted recording device. The system achieved forecasting performance significantly better than a random predictor for 5 of 6 patients studied, with mean AUC-ROC of 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Circadian and multiday rhythms are found across many biological systems, including cardiology, endocrinology, neurology, and immunology. In people with epilepsy, epileptic brain activity and seizure occurrence have been found to follow circadian, weekly, and monthly rhythms. Understanding the relationship between these cycles of brain excitability and other physiological systems can provide new insight into the causes of multiday cycles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAccurate identification of seizure activity, both clinical and subclinical, has important implications in the management of epilepsy. Accurate recognition of seizure activity is essential for diagnostic, management and forecasting purposes, but patient-reported seizures have been shown to be unreliable. Earlier work has revealed accurate capture of electrographic seizures and forecasting is possible with an implantable intracranial device, but less invasive electroencephalography (EEG) recording systems would be optimal.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: While the effects of prolonged sleep deprivation (≥24 h) on seizure occurrence has been thoroughly explored, little is known about the effects of day-to-day variations in the duration and quality of sleep on seizure probability. A better understanding of the interaction between sleep and seizures may help to improve seizure management.
Methods: To explore how sleep and epileptic seizures are associated, we analysed continuous intracranial electroencephalography (EEG) recordings collected from 10 patients with refractory focal epilepsy undergoing ordinary life activities between 2010 and 2012 from three clinical centres (Austin Health, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, and St Vincent's Hospital of the Melbourne University Epilepsy Group).
The unpredictability of epileptic seizures exposes people with epilepsy to potential physical harm, restricts day-to-day activities, and impacts mental well-being. Accurate seizure forecasters would reduce the uncertainty associated with seizures but need to be feasible and accessible in the long-term. Wearable devices are perfect candidates to develop non-invasive, accessible forecasts but are yet to be investigated in long-term studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIt is a major challenge in clinical epilepsy to diagnose and treat a disease characterized by infrequent seizures based on patient or caregiver reports and limited duration clinical testing. The poor reliability of self-reported seizure diaries for many people with epilepsy is well-established, but these records remain necessary in clinical care and therapeutic studies. A number of wearable devices have emerged, which may be capable of detecting seizures, recording seizure data, and alerting caregivers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Ultra long-term subcutaneous electroencephalography (sqEEG) monitoring is a new modality with great potential for both health and disease, including epileptic seizure detection and forecasting. However, little is known about the long-term quality and consistency of the sqEEG signal, which is the objective of this study.
Methods: The largest multicenter cohort of sqEEG was analyzed, including 14 patients with epilepsy and 12 healthy subjects, implanted with a sqEEG device (24/7 EEG SubQ), and recorded from 23 to 230 days (median 42 days), with a median data capture rate of 75% (17.
. The detection of seizures using wearable devices would improve epilepsy management, but reliable detection of seizures in an ambulatory environment remains challenging, and current studies lack concurrent validation of seizures using electroencephalography (EEG) data..
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Video-electroencephalography (vEEG) is an important component of epilepsy diagnosis and management. Nevertheless, inpatient vEEG monitoring fails to capture seizures in up to one third of patients. We hypothesized that personalized seizure forecasts could be used to optimize the timing of vEEG.
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