Photo: PUNIT PARANJPE / AFP / Getty Images
For: EFE
Thursday, November 7
American scientists manage to anticipate seizures in patients with epilepsy
Experts from the University of North Florida (UNF) and the Mayo Clinic managed to anticipate half an hour to the seizures of patients with epilepsy through measurements made using a bracelet .
To Dr. Mona Nasseri, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at UNF, It is a gift of time that can offer the hope of a better life to these patients, allowing them to take fast-acting medications or alter their activities to avoid these episodes.
The study, says the university in a statement released by this week, found patterns when the researchers compared physiological data collected by a monitoring device worn on the wrist with the actual time of a seizure.
Through data analysis, such as heart rate, body temperature and movement, the researchers found that could have predicted most seizures some 30 minutes before
Reliable forecasts are possible
These findings show that it is possible to provide reliable predictions of seizures without directly measuring brain activity, the university noted.
“I have seen these patients and I know they need something like this. When they have many seizures that are resistant to drugs, they have to avoid so many activities. We look forward to helping them, ”said Nasseri.
The study is part of the Epilepsy Foundation of the American Institute for Epilepsy Innovation and the My Seizure Gauge project, which includes international collaboration.
This is the first study that followed people during their daily activities for six to twelve months, rather than previous work that relied on recording patient data at the hospital, according to Nasseri.
They tracked six people with drug-resistant epilepsy who had implanted a neurostimulation device that monitors the electrical activity of the brain.
Due to the device in the brain, the researchers were able to receive data indicating exactly when the seizure occurred , rather than having to rely on the participants They will record the time in their personal journals, which is less reliable.
The idea is to provide a warning when a seizure is imminent.
Nasseri is contributing to the study by implementation of signal processing and machine learning techniques to develop these seizure detection and prediction algorithms.
“We collect data from wrist devices and design a machine learning algorithm”, He said. The project is based at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where Nasseri worked with Dr. Benjamin Brinkmann, the study’s principal investigator, before joining the UNF faculty at 2020.
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