Epileptic seizures and the interictal epileptiform discharges both have similar waveforms. And a method to effectively extract features that can be used to distinguish seizures is of crucial importance both in theory and clinical practice. We constructed state transfer networks by using visibility graphlet at multiple sampling intervals and analyzed network features. We found that the characteristics waveforms in ictal periods were more robust with various sampling intervals, and those feature network structures did not change easily in the range of the smaller sampling intervals. Inversely, the feature network structures of interictal epileptiform discharges were stable in range of relatively larger sampling intervals. Furthermore, the feature nodes in networks during ictal periods showed long-term correlation along the process, and played an important role in regulating system behavior. For stereo-electroencephalography at around 500 Hz, the greatest difference between ictal and the interictal epileptiform occurred at the sampling interval around 0.032 s. In conclusion, this study effectively reveals the correlation between the features of pathological changes in brain system and the multiple sampling intervals, which holds potential application value in clinical diagnosis for identifying, classifying, and predicting epilepsy.
ObjectiveTo evaluate the application of stereotactic electrode implantation on precise epileptogenic zone localization. MethodRetrospectively studied 140 patients with drug-resist epilepsy from March 2012 to June 2015, who undergone a procedure of intracranial stereotactic electrode for localized epileptogenic zone. ResultsIn 140 patients who underwent the ROSA navigated implantation of intracranial electrode, 109 are unilateral implantation, 31 are bilateral; 3 patients experienced an intracranial hematoma caused by the implantation. Preserved time of electrodes, on average, 8.4days (range 2~35 days); Obseved clinical seizures, on average, 10.8 times per pt (range 0~98 times); There were no cerebrospinal fluid leak, intracranial hematoma, electrodes fracture or patient death, except 2 pt's scalp infection (1.43%, scalp infection rate); 131 pts' seizure onset area was precisely localized; 71 pts underwent SEEG-guide resections and were followed up for more than 6 months. In the group of 71 resection pts, 56 pts were reached Engel I class, 2 were Engel Ⅱ, 3 was Engel Ⅲ and 10 were Engel IV class. ConclusionTo intractable epilepsy, when non-invasive assessments can't find the epileptogenic foci, intracranial electrode implantation combined with long-term VEEG is an effective method to localize the epileptogenic foci, especially the ROSA navigated stereotactic electrode implantation, which is a micro-invasive, short-time, less-complication, safe-guaranteed, and precise technique.
PurposeTo analyze the effect of medication withdraw (MW) on long-term electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring in children who need preoperative assessment for refractory epilepsy.MethodsRetrospective analysis was performed on the data of preoperative long-term EEG monitoring of children with refractory epilepsy who needed preoperative evaluation in the Pediatric Epilepsy Center of Peking University First Hospital from August 2018 to December 2019. Monitoring duration: at least three habitual seizures were detected, or the monitoring duration were as long as 10 days. MW protocol was according to the established plan.ResultsA total of 576 children (median age 4.4 years) required presurgical ictal EEGs, and 75 (75/576, 13.0%) needed MW for ictal EEGs. Among the 75 cases, 38 were male and 37 were female. The age range was from 15 months to 17 years (median age: 7.0 years). EEG and clinical data of with 65 children who strictly obey the MW protocol were analyzed. The total monitoring duration range was from 44.1 h (about 2 days) to 241.8 h (about 10 days)(median: 118.9 h (about 5 days)). Interictal EEG features before MW were including focal interictal epileptiform discharge (IED) in 39 cases (39/65, 60%), focal and generalized IED in 2 cases (2/65, 3.1%), multifocal IED in 20 cases (20/65, 30.7%), multifocal and generalized IED in 2 cases (2/65, 3.1%), and no IED in 2 cases (2/65, 3.1%). After MW, 18 cases (18/65, 27.7%) had no change in IED and the other 47 cases had changes of IED after MW. And IEDs in 46 cases (46/65, 70.8%) were aggravated, and IED was decreased in 1 case. The pattern of aggravated IED was original IED increasement, in 41 cases (41/46, 89.1%), and 5 cases (5 /46, 10.9%) had generalized IED which was not detected before MW. Of the 46 patients with IED exacerbations, 87.3% appeared within 3 days after MW. Habitual seizures were detected in 56 cases (86.2%, 56/65) after MW, and within 3 days of MW in 80.4% cases. Eight patients (14.3%) had secondary bilateral-tonic seizure (BTCS), of which only 1 patient had no BTCS in his habitual seizures. In 56 cases, 94.6% (53/56) had seizures after MW of two kinds of AEDs.Conclusions① In this group, thirteen percent children with intractable epilepsy needed MW to obtain ictal EEG; ② Most of them (86.2%) could obtain ictal EEG by MW. The IED and ictal EEG after MW were still helpful for localization of epileptogenic zone; ③ Most of the patients can obtain ictal EEG within 3 days after MW or after MW of two kinds of AEDs;4. The new secondary generalization was extremely rare.
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can influence the stimulated brain regions and other distal brain regions connecting to them. The purpose of the study is to investigate the effects of low-frequency rTMS over primary motor cortex on brain by analyzing the brain functional connectivity and coordination between brain regions. 10 healthy subjects were recruited. 1 Hz rTMS was used to stimulate primary motor cortex for 20 min. 1 min resting state electroencephalography (EEG) was collected before and after the stimulation respectively. By performing phase synchronization analysis between the EEG electrodes, the brain functional network and its properties were calculated. Signed-rank test was used for statistical analysis. The result demonstrated that the global phase synchronization in alpha frequency band was decreased significantly after low-frequency rTMS (P<0.05). The phase synchronization was down-regulated between motor cortex and ipsilateral frontal/parietal cortex, and also between contralateral parietal cortex and bilateral frontal cortex. The mean degree and global efficiency of brain functional networks in alpha frequency band were significantly decreased (P<0.05), and the mean shortest path length were significantly increased (P<0.05), which suggested the information transmission of the brain networks and its efficiency was reduced after low-frequency rTMS. This study verified the inhibition function of the low-frequency rTMS to brain activities, and demonstrated that low-frequency rTMS stimulation could affect both stimulating brain regions and distal brain regions connected to them. The findings in this study could be of guidance to clinical application of low-frequency rTMS.
ObjectiveTo investigate characteristics of motor semiology of epileptic seizure originated from dorsolateral frontal lobe. MethodsRetrospectively analysis the clinical profiles of patients who were diagnosed dorsolateral frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE) based on stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) and underwent respective surgeries subsequently. Component of motor semiology in a seizure can be divided into elementary motor (EM, include tonic, versive, clonic, and myoclonic seizures) and complex motor (CM, include automotor, hypermotor, and so on). A Talairach coordinate system was constructed in the sagittal series of MRI images in each case. From the cross point of VAC and the Sylvian Fissure, a line was drawn antero-superiorly, which made an angle of 60° with the AC-PC line, then the frontal lobe could be divided into anterior and posterior portion. The epileptogenic zone, which was defined as ictal onset and early spreading zone in SEEG, was classified into three types, according to the positional relationship of the responding electrodes contacts and the "60° line": the anterior, posterior, and intermediate FLE. The correlation of the components of motor semiology in seizures and the location of the epileptogenic zone was analyzed. ResultsFive cases (26.3%) were verified as anterior FLE, among which there were 2 of EM, one of CM, and 2 of EM+CM. In 7 cases (36.8%) of intermediate FLE, there were one of EM, none of CM, and 6 of EM+CM. In the rest 7 cases of posterior FLE, there were 6 of EM, none of CM, and one of EM+CM. Compared with the cases that the epileptogenic zone involved anterior portion, the posterior FLE is more likely to present EM seizures (85.7%), and less likely to show CM components (P < 0.05). And Compared with the anterior FLE and posterior FLE, the intermediate FLE is more likely to present EM+CM seizures (85.7%)(P < 0.05). ConclusionThe motor seizure semiology of dorsolateral FLE has significant correlation with the localization of the epileptogenic zone. Posterior FLE mainly present a pure elementary motor seizure, and once the epileptogenic zone involved anteriorly beyond the "60° line", the component of complex motor seizure would be seen. Intermediate FLE, as its specialty of transboundary, is more likely to show "comprised semiology" of EM and CM. Construction of the "60° line" with AC-PC coordinate system in the MRI images may play an useful role in semiology analysis in presurgical evaluation of FLE.
The purpose of using brain-computer interface (BCI) is to build a bridge between brain and computer for the disable persons, in order to help them to communicate with the outside world. Electroencephalography (EEG) has low signal to noise ratio (SNR), and there exist some problems in the traditional methods for the feature extraction of EEG, such as low classification accuracy, lack of spatial information and huge amounts of features. To solve these problems, we proposed a new method based on time domain, frequency domain and space domain. In this study, independent component analysis (ICA) and wavelet transform were used to extract the temporal, spectral and spatial features from the original EEG signals, and then the extracted features were classified with the method combined support vector machine (SVM) with genetic algorithm (GA). The proposed method displayed a better classification performance, and made the mean accuracy of the Graz datasets in the BCI Competitions of 2003 reach 96%. The classification results showed that the proposed method with the three domains could effectively overcome the drawbacks of the traditional methods based solely on time-frequency domain when the EEG signals were used to describe the characteristics of the brain electrical signals.
ObjectiveThe aim was to summarize the seizure and video electroencephalogram (VEEG) characteristics of Dyke-Davidoff-Masson syndrome (DDMS). Methods The case data of four patients with Dyke-Davidoff-Masson syndrome (DDMS) who attended the Epilepsy Center of Hunan Provincial Brain Hospital from March 2022 to March 2023 were retrospectively analyzed to summarize the clinical manifestations of their seizures and the characteristics of their video electroencephalogram (VEEG). Results One case of symptomatic epilepsy with focal seizures; VEEG showed poor background activity alpha rhythmic modulation, amplitude modulation, and increased distribution of slow wave activity in the left frontal and temporal regions; bilateral frontal-central and anterior-temporal regions (more so on the left side), with sharp and slow composite wave issuance.Two cases of symptomatic epilepsy with focal seizures progressing to generalized seizures; in one case, the VEEG showed: background activity α-rhythmic modulation, amplitude modulation is possible, the left frontal, central, anterior temporal region slow wave increase; the left frontal central, parietal anterior temporal region spike-like slow wave activity mixed with spike wave, spike-slow complex wave short-medium-range issuance; the other VEEG showed: background activity α-rhythmic modulation, amplitude modulation is possible, the right frontal central, anterior temporal region slow wave increase; right frontal, central, and anterior temporal region for the famous medium-extremely high-high-amplitude slow wave activity mixed with spike wave, spike-slow complex wave short-medium-range issuance. One case of symptomatic epilepsy with generalized seizures; VEEG showed bilateral occipital alpha rhythm asymmetry, right occipital region <50% of the left side, poor regulation and amplitude modulation; bilateral frontal pole, frontal region, anterior temporal region spike and spiking slow complex wave discharges (right side was prominent), and right pterionic electrodes, anterior temporal and mesial temporal spike and spiking slow wave discharges. Conclusions Epileptic seizures are one of the main clinical manifestations of DDMS and most of them are consulted after a seizure, and their seizure types tend to be focal seizures or progress to generalized seizures, and most of them are drug-refractory epilepsies. The results of VEEG monitoring tend to be characterized by abnormal background activity, increased slow-wave activity, and the site of epileptogenic wave-like discharges tends to be in line with the site of cerebral softening foci or the site of the atrophic side of the brain as shown by cranial MRI.
ObjectiveTo understand the relationship between the anatomy and the function of the insula lobe cortex based on the stereo-electro encephalography (SEEG) by direct electric stimulation of the insula cortex performed in the patients who suffered from the refractory epilepsy. MethodsRetrospective review was performed on 12 individuals with refractory epilepsy who were diagnosed in the Department of Functional neurosurgery of RenJi Hospital from December 2013 to September 2015. We studied all the SEEG electrodes implanted in the brain with contacts in the insula cortex. Direct electric stimulation was given to gain the brain mapping of the insula. Results12 consecutive patients with refractory epilepsy were implanted SEEG electrodes into the insula cortex. In all, 176 contacts were in the insula cortex, and 154 were included. The main clinical manifestations obtained by the stimulation were somatosensory abnormalities, laryngeal constriction, dyspnea, nausea, flustered. While somatosensory symptoms were located in the posterior insula, visceral sensory symptoms distribute relatively in the anterior insula, and other symptoms were mainly in the central and anterior part. ConclusionsThe symptoms of the insula present mainly according to the anatomy, but some of them are mixed. In addition, the manifestations of the insula are usually complex and individually.
Sleep stage scoring is a hotspot in the field of medicine and neuroscience. Visual inspection of sleep is laborious and the results may be subjective to different clinicians. Automatic sleep stage classification algorithm can be used to reduce the manual workload. However, there are still limitations when it encounters complicated and changeable clinical cases. The purpose of this paper is to develop an automatic sleep staging algorithm based on the characteristics of actual sleep data. In the proposed improved K-means clustering algorithm, points were selected as the initial centers by using a concept of density to avoid the randomness of the original K-means algorithm. Meanwhile, the cluster centers were updated according to the 'Three-Sigma Rule' during the iteration to abate the influence of the outliers. The proposed method was tested and analyzed on the overnight sleep data of the healthy persons and patients with sleep disorders after continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment. The automatic sleep stage classification results were compared with the visual inspection by qualified clinicians and the averaged accuracy reached 76%. With the analysis of morphological diversity of sleep data, it was proved that the proposed improved K-means algorithm was feasible and valid for clinical practice.
ObjectiveTo explore the prognostic value of normal 24 hour video electroencephalography (VEEG) with different frequency on antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) withdrawal in cryptogenic epilepsy patients with three years seizure-free. MethodsA retrospective study was conducted in the Neurology outpatient and the Epilepsy Center of Xi Jing Hospital. The subject who had been seizure free more than 3 years were divided into continual normal twice group and once group according to the nomal frequence of 24 hour VEEG before discontinuation from January 2013 to December 2014, and then followed up to replase or to December 2015. The recurrence and cumulative recurrence rate of the two group after withdrawal AEDs were compared with chi-square or Fisher's exact test and Kaplan-Meier survival curve. A Cox proportional hazard model was used for multivariate analysis to identify the risk factors for seizure recurrence after univariate analysis. P value < 0.05 was considered significant, and all P values were two-tailed. Results95 epilepsy patients with cause unknown between 9 to 45 years old were recruited (63 in normal twice group and 32 in normal once group). The cumulated recurrence rates in continual two normal VEEG group vs one normal VEEG group were 4.8% vs 21.9% (P=0.028), 4.8% vs 25% (P=0.006) and 7.9% vs 25%(P=0.03) at 18 months, 24 months and endpoint following AEDs withdrawal and there was statistically difference between the two groups. Factors associated with increased risk were adolescent onset epilepsy (HR=2.404), history of withdrawal recurrence (HR=7.186) and abnormal VEEG (epileptic-form discharge) (HR=8.222) during or after withdrawal AEDs. The recurrence rate of each group in which abnormal VEEG vs unchanged VEEG during or after withdrawal AEDs was respectively 100% vs 4.92% (P=0.005), 80% vs 19.23%(P=0.009). ConclusionsContinual normal 24h VEEG twice before withdrawal AEDs had higher predicting value of seizure recurrence and it could guide physicians to make the withdrawal decision. Epileptic patients with adolescent onset epilepsy, history of seizure recurrence and abnormal VEEG (epileptic-form discharge) during or after withdrawal AEDs had high risk of replase, especially patients with the presence of VEEG abnormalities is associated with a high probability of seizures occurring. Discontinuate AEDs should be cautious.