Investigation of ECG Changes in Absence Epilepsy on WAG/Rij Rats.
BACKGROUND
Seizures are symptoms associated with abnormal electrical activity in electroencephalogram (EEG). The present study was designed to determine the effect of absence seizure on heart rate (HR) changes in electrocardiogram (ECG).


METHODS
HR alterations were recorded simultaneous with spike and wave discharges (SWD) by EEG in 6 WAG/Rij rats as a well characterized and validated genetic animal epilepsy model. Moreover, 6 control rats were used to distinguish the differences of HR changes between various groups. Electrodes were placed on the skull and under the chest skin, minimizing time delay and signal attenuation. HR was calculated by an adaptable algorithm based on continues wavelet transform (CWT) particular for this study. Three main features of HR; minimum, maximum, and mean values were estimated for pre-ictal and ictal intervals for all seizures.


RESULTS
ECG beats detected with sensitivity of 99.9% and positive predictability of 99.8% based on CWT. HR deceleration was found in 86% of the seizures. There were statistically significant (P<0.001) reductions of these values from pre-ictal to ictal intervals. Interictal HR acceleration and ictal deceleration were the major feature of alterations and in 23% of seizures, this decrease had priority to the onsets.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings may lead to design a seizure alarm system based on HR and to obtain new insights about sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) phenomenon and side-effects of antiepileptic drugs (AED).
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.
Fatemeh
F
Es'haghi
School of Advanced Medical Science, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Parviz
P
Shahabi
Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.
Javad
J
Frounchi
Neuroscience Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Mina
M
Sadighi
Neuroscience Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Hadi
H
Yousefi
Absence seizure; Continues wavelet transforms; Heart rate; SWD; Seizure detection