Ear-EEG detects ictal and interictal abnormalities in focal and generalized epilepsy - A comparison with scalp EEG monitoring.

Ear-EEG detects ictal and interictal abnormalities in focal and generalized epilepsy - A comparison with scalp EEG monitoring.

Clin Neurophysiol. 2017 Oct 12;128(12):2454-2461

Authors: Zibrandtsen IC, Kidmose P, Christensen CB, Kjaer TW

Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Ear-EEG is recording of electroencephalography from a small device in the ear. This is the first study to compare ictal and interictal abnormalities recorded with ear-EEG and simultaneous scalp-EEG in an epilepsy monitoring unit.
METHODS: We recorded and compared simultaneous ear-EEG and scalp-EEG from 15 patients with suspected temporal lobe epilepsy. EEGs were compared visually by independent neurophysiologists. Correlation and time-frequency analysis was used to quantify the similarity between ear and scalp electrodes. Spike-averages were used to assess similarity of interictal spikes.
RESULTS: There were no differences in sensitivity or specificity for seizure detection. Mean correlation coefficient between ear-EEG and nearest scalp electrode was above 0.6 with a statistically significant decreasing trend with increasing distance away from the ear. Ictal morphology and frequency dynamics can be observed from visual inspection and time-frequency analysis. Spike averages derived from ear-EEG electrodes yield a recognizable spike appearance.
CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that ear-EEG can reliably detect electroencephalographic patterns associated with focal temporal lobe seizures. Interictal spike morphology from sufficiently large temporal spike sources can be sampled using ear-EEG.
SIGNIFICANCE: Ear-EEG is likely to become an important tool in clinical epilepsy monitoring and diagnosis.

PMID: 29096220 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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