University of Melbourne Newsroom | 2 May 2013
World-first study predicts epilepsy seizures in humans
A small device implanted in the brain has accurately predicted epilepsy seizures in humans in a world-first study led by Professor Mark Cook, Chair of Medicine at the University of Melbourne and Director of Neurology at St Vincent’s Hospital.
“Knowing when a seizure might happen could dramatically improve the quality of life and independence of people with epilepsy,” said Professor Cook, whose research was today published in the international medical journal, Lancet Neurology.
Professor Cook and his team, with Professors Terry O’Brien and Sam Berkovic, worked with researchers at Seattle-based company, NeuroVista, who developed a device which could be implanted between the skull and brain surface to monitor long-term electrical signals in the brain (EEG data).
They worked together to develop a second device implanted under the chest, which transmitted electrodes recorded in the brain to a hand-held device, providing a series of lights warning patients of the high (red), moderate (white), or low (blue), likelihood of having a seizure in the hours ahead.
The two year study included 15 people with epilepsy aged between 20 and 62 years, who experienced between two and 12 seizures per month and had not had their seizures controlled with existing treatments.
For the first month of the trial the system was set purely to record EEG data, which allowed Professor Cook and his team to construct individual algorithms of seizure prediction for each patient.
The system correctly predicted seizures with a high warning, 65% of the time, and worked to a level better than 50% in 11 of the 15 patients. Eight of the 11 patients had their seizures accurately predicted between 56 and 100% of the time.
Epilepsy is the second most common neurological disease after stroke, affecting over 60 million people worldwide. Up to 40% of people are unable to control their seizures with existing treatments.
