Executive Summary
The invention is a novel patient-monitoring device that uses limb accelerometry to more accurately diagnose epileptic seizures (ES).
Background
Nearly 10 percent of Americans will experience at least one seizure during their lifetime. Unfortunately, however, seizures can be difficult to diagnose using existing technology and methods, which often face many practical challenges. For example, clinical observation of convulsive movements is subjective and often unreliable. Tools such as electroencephalography (EEG) and continuous video-EEG (CV-EEG) are cumbersome and have a variety of use limitations. Moreover, a number of medical conditions can mimic ES, such as psychogenic non-epileptic pseudoseizures (PNES), increasing the difficulty of achieving an accurate diagnosis.
Invention Description
The invention quantifies motor activity during convulsions using limb accelerometry and movement analysis and is composed of two primary components:
A device that measures and records data representing the physical movements of the human limbs and
Software that analyzes the data and characterizes the movement signal during clinical seizure episodes.
Collectively, the system serves to accurately diagnose seizure activity. A pilot study yielded promising results that confirm the invention’s ability to clearly distinguish ES motor activity from PNES activity.
Advantages
The invention:
Provides more accurate diagnosis of seizures, thereby improving patient care
Quantifies the differences in motor activity that distinguish ES from PNES, overcoming diagnostic limitations of many existing devices
Performs remote, non-invasive and long-term collection of data, offering flexibility and ease-of-use to caregivers
Potential Applications
The invention can be implemented in software and on devices such as wrist-mounted accelerometers to better diagnose and characterize seizures.
For more information about this technology, please contact Matt Bednar at 434-982-1615 or mbednar@virginia.edu.