title: Detection of epileptic-seizures by means of power spectrum analysis of heart rate variability: a pilot study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether epileptic seizures could be predicted or detected by means of spectral analysis of heart rate variability (HRV).
  
  
  METHODS
  Six patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (4 females, 2 males) participated in the prospective pilot study while enrolled for video/EEG monitoring (24 h/day, 2-4 days). ECG was continuously recorded and 30 min seizure-sessions (25-30 min pre-seizure to 30 sec-5 min post-seizure onset) and 30 min non-seizure-sessions (day- and night sessions for each patient, as control) were chosen for further HRV-analysis. Low frequency (LF) (0.04-0.15 Hz), High frequencies (HF) (0.15-0.40 Hz), LF/HF, LF/(LF+HF) and reciprocal HF-power was determined using continuous FFT- spectral analysis of 64 R-R interval windowing with maximum overlapping.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Six seizures were recorded and analyzed from three patients (2 females, 1 male). All of the analyzed EEG-correlated seizures showed reciprocal HF-power peaks between 10 sec pre seizure-onset and 24 sec post seizure-onset with peak amplitudes 2.96-93.63 times higher than control maximum peak. For the other parameters we could not find significant difference between seizure and non-seizure sessions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Specifically high reciprocal HF-power peaks suggest suppressed parasympathetic activity just around seizure-onset time. Seizure detection using HRV-analysis seems to be a promising method for non-invasive seizure detection in the early phase of the clinical event (even preceding the onset).
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Aarhus University, Nordre Ringgade 64A, Aarhus, Denmark. jesper_jeppesen@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Jesper
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jeppesen
authors.forename: Sándor
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Beniczky
authors.forename: Anders
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fuglsang-Frederiksen
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sidenius
authors.forename: Yousef
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jasemian
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012640:Seizures / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology