An entropy-based approach to predict seizures in temporal lobe epilepsy using scalp EEG

• Published in: 2009 Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Vol. 2009; pp. 228 - 231
• Main Authors: Zandi, A.S., Dumont, G.A., Javidan, M., Tafreshi, R.
• Format: Conference Proceeding Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01-01-2009
• Subjects: Algorithm design and analysis; Algorithms; Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted - methods; Electroencephalography; Electroencephalography - methods; Entropy; Epilepsy; Epilepsy - diagnosis; Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe - diagnosis; Humans; Neurons; Prediction algorithms; Reproducibility of Results; Scalp; Sensitivity and Specificity; Signal analysis; Temporal lobe; USA Councils
• ISSN: 1094-687X; 1557-170X; 1558-4615
• DOI: 10.1109/IEMBS.2009.5333971

We describe a novel algorithm for the prediction of epileptic seizures using scalp EEG. The method is based on the analysis of the positive zero-crossing interval series of the EEG signal and its first and second derivatives as a measure of brain dynamics. In a moving-window analysis, we estimated the probability density of these intervals and computed the differential entropy. The resultant entropy time series were then inspected using the cumulative sum (CUSUM) procedure to detect decreases as precursors of upcoming seizures. In the next step, the alarm sequences resulting from analysis of the EEG waveform and its derivatives were combined. Finally, a seizure prediction index was generated based on the spatio-temporal processing of the combined CUSUM alarms. We evaluated our algorithm using a dataset of ~21.5 hours of multichannel scalp EEG recordings from four patients with temporal lobe epilepsy, resulting in 87.5% sensitivity, a false prediction rate of 0.28/hr, and an average prediction time of 25 min.