Localization of seizure focus using interictal intracranial EEG

Abstract

The World Health Organization states that around 50 million people worldwide are suffering from epilepsy. Epilepsy is a chronic non-communicable disorder of the brain, characterized by seizures that occur at unpredictable moments. The usual methods of treatment for epilepsy are anti-epileptic medications and surgical resection of the brain area where the epileptic seizure originated. In 70% of the cases, medication proves to have side effects. Thus, surgery proves to be the most effective form of treatment. This highlights the importance of precisely localizing the seizure focus which is the main objective of this report. Analysis of electroencephalography from brains of certain patients and animals has shown to contain some unusual features in the seizure regions. This project analyzes raw electroencephalography signals from patients in the aim of helping in localization of the seizure focus. Our hypothesis is that even at rest, seizure features such as high frequency oscillations (HFOs) and interictal spikes are highly correlated to the seizure focus. The results proved to be encouraging by rendering a correlation among high frequency oscillations, spikes and epileptic seizure area. Such an outcome definitely sustains a path for further research analysis of Clinical Electroencephalography (EEG) for diagnosis of Epilepsy by incorporating more features and advanced algorithms.