Safely informing focal epilepsy treatment

The recorded history of epilepsy and epilepsy treatments dates back thousands of years, although the modern era of clinical epilepsy management with improved characterisation of seizures can be traced back to the late 19th century. Clinical features were better described leading to their use in directly informing surgical treatments in isolated cases. But there remained many inherent uncertainties along with the obvious risks.

The advent of a technique to record electrical activity or brain waves by Dr. Hans Berger in the late 1920’s started a revolution in the diagnosis and understanding of epilepsy as a constellation of syndromes describing them as “the epilepsies”, with common features seen on the electroencephalogram (EEG), guiding likely sources of abnormal brainwave activity as more electrodes were routinely used. This still required training expert physicians to project the abnormal waveform patterns on the page to a 3D mental image of the brain for estimating likely epileptic regions.

Imaging of the brain using MRI has also been revolutionary in the non-invasive detection of abnormalities that can cause seizures. Functional imaging studies like PET and SPECT scans can provide a different perspective on how the brain is functioning. Despite many advancements in these technologies, cases remain where the standard EEG and routine imaging do not provide a clear answer. This is when combining various techniques can provide additional insights.

Today, with the power of modern computing, advances in technology for better capturing subtle changes in the brain non-invasively, and the use of specialised software algorithms enable us to construct models of head and brain to capture these seizure signal abnormalities in 3D space. We use this multi-modal approach to better inform clinical teams of the likely seizure source, by using the most sensitive techniques for detecting the dynamic changes leading to seizures. All this can be done before considering any further procedures, including invasive monitoring, that may still be required to support your diagnosis.

Our company is driven to better informing treatments for epilepsy by developing a clearer understanding of the underlying causes, built on a long tradition of combining the details of an individual’s personal history of epilepsy directly with data from their abnormal brainwave activity.