Brain Implant can Predict Seizures in Epilepsy Patients

A new kind of brain implant created by Australian scientists can help predict seizures in people suffering from epilepsy hours before it occurs. The implant comes with another device that's placed under the chest, which uses the signals from the brain and warns the user of a possible seizure via a hand-held device.

Epilepsy is a general term that refers to a tendency of having recurrent seizures. A seizure occurs when nerve cells have abnormal and high levels of signals. Seizures cause temporary disturbances in the brain. The latest device can help patients know when a seizure is about to take place and also of what intensity it is likely to be; such as, a red warning signal means a severe seizure, while a blue one shows a very low-intensity seizure.

"Knowing when a seizure might happen could dramatically improve the quality of life and independence of people with epilepsy," professor Mark Cook, one of the study authors, said.

The study was conducted by researchers from University of Melbourne who collaborated with a team of researchers from Seattle-based company NeuroVista. The device can be placed between the skull and brain surface and can be used to assess long-term electrical signals in the brain.

About 15 people who were suffering from epilepsy took part in the study, which monitored the effect of the brain implant for two years. The participants were between 20 and 62 years of age.

The new device correctly predicted the occurrence of a seizure in 11 of the 15 test subjects. And, 8 of them had obtained a prediction that was accurate between 56 and 100 percent of the time.

Approximately 2 million people living in the U.S. have epilepsy, with another 140,000 developing the disorder each year. Epilepsy costs about $15 billion to the U.S. economy, CDC says.

The study is published in the journal Lancet Neurology.                        

"The problem is that people with epilepsy are, for the most part, otherwise extremely well. So their activities are limited entirely by this condition, which might affect only a few minutes of every year of their life, and yet have catastrophic consequences like falls, burns and drowning," Cook said in a statement.