Accelerometry-based home monitoring for detection of nocturnal hypermotor seizures based on novelty detection

IEEE J Biomed Health Inform. 2014 May;18(3):1026-33. doi: 10.1109/JBHI.2013.2285015. Epub 2013 Oct 9.

Abstract

Nocturnal home monitoring of epileptic children is often not feasible due to the cumbersome manner of seizure monitoring with the standard method of video/EEG-monitoring. We propose a method for hypermotor seizure detection based on accelerometers attached to the extremities. From the acceleration signals, multiple temporal, frequency, and wavelet-based features are extracted. After determining the features with the highest discriminative power, we classify movement events in epileptic and nonepileptic movements. This classification is only based on a nonparametric estimate of the probability density function of normal movements. Such approach allows us to build patient-specific models to classify movement data without the need for seizure data that are rarely available. If, in the test phase, the probability of a data point (event) is lower than a threshold, this event is considered to be an epileptic seizure; otherwise, it is considered as a normal nocturnal movement event. The mean performance over seven patients gives a sensitivity of 95.24% and a positive predictive value of 60.04%. However, there is a noticeable interpatient difference.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Accelerometry / methods*
  • Adolescent
  • Algorithms
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Electroencephalography / methods
  • Epilepsy / diagnosis*
  • Humans
  • Models, Statistical
  • Monitoring, Physiologic / methods*
  • Movement / physiology
  • Sensitivity and Specificity