Prospective Study of 2 Bed Alarms for Detection of Nocturnal Seizures

Abstract

For parents of children with epilepsy, seizures occurring in sleep are a major concern. Risk factors for sudden unexplained death in epilepsy patients include being in bed and generalized tonic-clonic seizures. A device for detecting nocturnal seizure activity would be valuable. Children with various seizure types undergoing evaluation had standard video electroencephalography (EEG), cardiopulmonary and nursing monitoring, and 1 of 2 models (ST-2 and MP5) of a Medpage bed alarm. The video EEG record was reviewed to detect any seizures missed by the bed alarms or caregivers. The ability of the bed alarms to detect motor seizures in general and specific seizure types was tested. In 15 patients, 69 seizures were recorded by video EEG. The ST-2 did not detect any nocturnal seizures. The MP5 alarm detected 1 of 15 in sleeping patients: a generalized tonic-clonic seizure. The Medpage seizure alarms do not appear to adequately detect nocturnal seizures.

Keywords

seizure alarms seizures intractable epilepsy sudden unexplained death in epilepsy (SUDEP)

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Larson

Ryther

Jennesson

. Impact of pediatric epilepsy on sleep patterns and behaviors in children and parents. Epilepsia. 53:1162–1169.

Tomson

Walczak

Sillanpaa

. Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy: a review of incidence and risk factors. Epilepsia. 2005;46(suppl 11):54–61.

McGregor

Wheless

. Pediatric experience with sudden unexplained death in epilepsy at a tertiary epilepsy center. J Child Neurol. 2006;21:782–787.

Langan

Nashef

Sander

. Case-control study of SUDEP. Neurology. 2005;64:1131–1133.

Nashef

Fish

Garner

. Sudden death in epilepsy: a study of incidence in a young cohort with epilepsy and learning difficulty. Epilepsia. 1995;36:1187–1194.

Carlson

Arnedo

Cahill

. Detecting nocturnal convulsions: efficacy of the MP5 monitor. Seizure. 2009;18:225–227.

Kramer

Kipervasser

Shlitner

. A novel portable seizure detection alarm system: preliminary results. J Clin Neurophysiol. 2011;28:36–38.

Lockman

Fisher

Olson

. Detection of seizure-like movements using a wrist accelerometer. Epilepsy Behav. 2011;20:638–641.

Nijsen

Arends

Griep

. The potential value of three-dimensional accelerometry for detection of motor seizures in severe epilepsy. Epilepsy Behav. 2005;7:74–84.

10.

Schulc

Unterberger

Saboor

. Measurement and quantification of generalized tonic-clonic seizures in epilepsy patients by means of accelerometry—an explorative study. Epilepsy Res. 2011;95:173–183.

11.

Nijsen

Cluitmans

Arends

. Detection of subtle nocturnal motor activity from 3-D accelerometry recordings in epilepsy patients. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2007;54:2073–2081.

12.

Poh

Loddenkemper

Reinsberger

. Convulsive seizure detection using a wrist-worn electrodermal activity and accelerometry biosensor. Epilepsia. 2012;53: e93–e97.

13.

Conradsen

Beniczky

Hoppe

. Automated algorithm for generalized tonic-clonic epileptic seizure onset detection based on sEMG zero-crossing rate. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2012;59:579–585.

14.

Medpage MP5 Nocturnal Seizure Alarm. Medpage Ltd. Available at: http://www.medpage-ltd.com/page25.html. Accessed July 23, 2012.