Novel wireless electroencephalography system with a minimal preparation time for use in emergencies and prehospital care

Abstract

BackgroundAlthough clinical applications such as emergency medicine and prehospital care could benefit from a fast-mounting electroencephalography (EEG) recording system, the lack of specifically designed equipment restricts the use of EEG in these environments.MethodsThis paper describes the design and testing of a six-channel emergency EEG (emEEG) system with a rapid preparation time intended for use in emergency medicine and prehospital care. The novel system comprises a quick-application cap, a device for recording and transmitting the EEG wirelessly to a computer, and custom software for displaying and streaming the data in real-time to a hospital. Bench testing was conducted, as well as healthy volunteer and patient measurements in three different environments: a hospital EEG laboratory, an intensive care unit, and an ambulance. The EEG data was evaluated by two experienced clinical neurophysiologists and compared with recordings from a commercial system.ResultsThe bench tests demonstrated that the emEEG system's performance is comparable to that of a commercial system while the healthy volunteer and patient measurements confirmed that the system can be applied quickly and that it records quality EEG data in a variety of environments. Furthermore, the recorded data was judged to be of diagnostic quality by two experienced clinical neurophysiologists.ConclusionsIn the future, the emEEG system may be used to record high-quality EEG data in emergency medicine and during ambulance transportation. Its use could lead to a faster diagnostic, a more accurate treatment, and a shorter recovery time for patients with neurological brain disorders.

Comparison of Medical and Consumer Wireless EEG Systems for Use in Clinical Trials

“…Recent investigations have been exploring their utility beyond gaming: NeuroSky was shown to be able to detect onset of stage 1 sleep (Van Hal et al, 2014 ) and there has also been interest in assessing consumer EEG within brain computer-interfaces (Bialas and Milanowski, 2014 ; Kim et al, 2015 ; Taherian et al, 2017 ). The application of simpler EEG systems (6-channels, for example) is also being explored for emergency settings (Jakab et al, 2014 ). A prior evaluation, although utilizing a more complex headset, showed that commercially available multi-lead consumer EEG systems, such as the Emotiv EPOC 16-electrode cap, may also have value in evaluating clinical conditions (Schiff et al, 2016 ).…”

Automated seizure detection systems and their effectiveness for each type of seizure

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The role of electroencephalography in the early diagnosis of non-convulsive status epilepticus in elderly patients with acute confusional state: Two possible strategies?

“…not be as immediately available [29]. It has been proposed that wireless systems allowing remote access for reviewing by neurophysiologists may provide a feasible solution and indicate the future direction to pursue [33,34]. Alternatively, the use of EAEEG could be better suited for highly selective cases: this view was endorsed by Brenner et al [35], who implemented the use of a bedside reduced-montage EEG to confirm the diagnosis of NCSE in patients with a known history of seizure or a witnessed seizure.…”