Abstract
Epilepsy is the third most common neurological illness, affecting 1% of the world's population. Despite advances in medicine, about 25 to 30% of the patients do not respond to or cannot tolerate the severe side effects of medical treatment, and surgery is not an option for the majority of patients with epilepsy. The objective of this article is to review the current state of research on seizure detection based on cerebral blood flow (CBF) data acquired by thermal diffusion flowmetry (TDF), and CBF-based seizure prediction. A discussion is provided on the applications, advantages, and disadvantages of TDF in detecting and localizing seizure foci, as well as its role in seizure prediction. Also presented are an overview of the present challenges and possible future research directions (along with methodological guidelines) of the CBF-based seizure detection and prediction methods.
Highlights
Studies have shown that an excessive and abnormal synchronization of actively discharging neurons characterizes the dynamic process of human focal epilepsy [1, 2]
The regional CBF (rCBF) is determined by measuring the effective thermal conductivity of the cortical tissue, which changes with rCBF, using a temperature microprobe implanted in the cerebral region of interest (ROI)
Performed further calibration of the thermal diffusion flowmetry (TDF) probe by correlating with the fast component of isotope clearance (Xe183) in animals, and concluded that the probe is good for evaluating cerebral blood flow (CBF) at ischemic levels
Summary
Studies have shown that an excessive and abnormal synchronization of actively discharging neurons characterizes the dynamic process of human focal epilepsy [1, 2]. The etiology of epilepsy in most cases remains unknown, and this may be in part due to the different types of seizures, symptoms, and intensities that seem to greatly vary from person to person [3]. Factors such as head injuries, damaged brain cells, brain tumor, brain chemical imbalances, febrile convulsions, genetic factors, and other developmental anomalies such as cerebral palsy are some of the associations noted where a cause is identifiable. Surgical treatment is not an option if the seizure focus is not clearly identified or too vital to remove, if the patient has other serious medical problems (such as cancer or heart disease), or if lack of resources, complexity of the procedure, or high cost, outside the developed countries, is an issue
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