Waveform Window #50: A Novel Presentation of Deep Brain Stimulator (DBS) Artifact on Electroencephalogram (EEG) and Electrocardiogram (ECG)

Electrodiagnostic artifacts due to neurostimulation devices for drug resistant epilepsy

“…DBS-related artifacts have also been previously reported in the EEGs of movement disorders and epilepsy patients [11] , [12] , [13] , [14] , [21] , [22] , [23] , as well as in ECG recordings of movement disorders patients. Some of these artifacts mimicking ECG rhythm abnormalities, including a case of resuscitation performed on a Parkinson’s patient with DBS due to artifact masquerading as ventricular fibrillation [24] , a case of delayed diagnosis of acute myocardial event in a patient with dystonia [25] , and artifacts mimicking heart rate abnormalities including atrial and ventricular fibrillation [6] , [22] .…”

Unusual EEG Artifact in Patients with DBS

“…They hypothesized the artifact was result of aliasing due to a low sampling rate of 256 Hz. 8 Aliasing would not explain our artifact given that stimulation was at 130 Hz for all 3 of our patients but sampling rate was 512 Hz which is well over twice the “Nyquist frequency” needed to avoid aliasing. Another possibility is that the artifact is the result of the DBS generator and its battery.…”