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Scalp EEG quantitative analysis : automated real-time detection and prediction of epileptic seizures

University of British Columbia

As a chronic neurological disorder, epilepsy is associated with recurrent, unprovoked epileptic seizures resulting from a sudden disturbance of brain function. Long-term monitoring of epileptic patients' Electroencephalogram (EEG) is often needed for diagnosis of seizures, which is tedious, expensive, and time-consuming. Also, clinical staff may not identify the seizure early enough to determine the semiology at the onset. This motivates EEG-based automated real-time detection of seizures. Apart from their possible severe side effects, common treatments for epilepsy (medication and surgery) fail to satisfactorily control seizures in ~25% of patients. EEG-based seizure prediction systems would significantly enhance the chance of controlling/aborting seizures and improve safety and quality of life for patients. This thesis proposes novel EEG-based patient-specific techniques for real-time detection and prediction of epileptic seizures and also presents a pilot study of scalp EEGs acquired in a unique low-noise underground environment. The proposed detection method is based on the wavelet packet analysis of EEG. A novel index, termed the combined seizure index, is introduced which is sensitive to both the rhythmicity and relative energy of the EEG in a given channel and considers the consistency among different channels at the same time. This index is monitored by a cumulative sum procedure in each channel. This channel-based information is then used to generate the final seizure alarm. In this thesis, a prediction method based on a variational Bayesian Gaussian mixture model of the EEG positive zero-crossing intervals is proposed. Novel indices of similarity and dissimilarity are introduced to compare current observations with the preictal and interictal references and monitor the changes for each channel. Information from individual channels is finally combined to trigger an alarm for upcoming seizures. These methods are evaluated using scalp EEG data. The prediction method is also tested against a random predictor. Finally, this thesis investigates the capability of an ultra-shielded underground capsule for acquiring clean EEG. Results demonstrate the potential of the capsule for novel EEG studies, including establishing novel low-noise EEG benchmarks which could be helpful in better understanding of the brain functions and mechanisms deriving various brain disorders, such as epilepsy.

Text

2012-07-18

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/42748

Electrical and Computer Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/