ACQUISITION AND ANALYSIS TOOLS FOR SPECT IN EPILEPSY

最近的研究表明，发作期SPECT（单正电子发射计算机断层扫描）是一种有用的非侵入性方法定位癫痫手术的候选人的癫痫灶。 尽管如此，由于难以确保最佳的发作注射和缺乏足够的软件进行必要的图像分析，相对较少的中心常规应用该技术。 他的项目的总体目标是开发软件工具，以便于使用发作SPECT进行术前定位。第一阶段将侧重于实施一个患者特定的预警系统的可行性，该系统能够通过开发可训练的癫痫发作检测软件，根据先前的癫痫发作检测或预测特定患者的癫痫发作，从而可靠地预测或早期检测头皮EEG的癫痫发作。我们还将研究SPECT病灶定位限制的发作期EEG偶极子模型，这可能是一个有用的工具，用于检查发作期血流变化与癫痫放电之间的一致性，并用于评估快速蔓延癫痫发作中多个病灶之间的动态EEG关系。 第二阶段将重点优化癫痫发作预警系统并实施实时软件进行现场测试，此外还将系统地评估受SPECT约束的癫痫发作偶极建模的临床价值。拟定商业应用：成功的结果将大大提高SPECT的临床应用，以定位癫痫发作开始的大脑中的特定区域，从而最大限度地减少颅内电极在术前诊断研究中的使用。 这将大大降低与这些研究相关的成本和患者压力。

Recent studies have demonstrated that ictal SPECT (Single Positron Emission Computed Tomography) is a useful noninvasive method for localizing seizure foci in candidates for epilepsy surgery. Despite this, relatively few centers apply this technique routinely, due to the difficulty of ensuring optimal ictal injection and the lack of adequate software for the necessary image analysis. The overall goal of: t:his project is to develop software tools to facilitate the use of ictal SPECT for presurgical localization. Phase I will focus on the feasibility of implementing a patient-specific warning system capable of reliable prediction or early detection of seizure onset from scalp EEG, by developing trainable seizure detection software to detect or predict seizures in a given patient based on previous seizures. Ictal EEG dipole model in with localization constrained by SPECT foci will also be investigated, which may be a useful tool for checking concordance between ictal blood flow changes and the seizure discharge, and for assessing dynamic EEG relationships between multiple foci in rapidly spreading seizures. Phase II will focus on optimizing the seizure warning system and implementing realtime software for field testing, in addition to systematically evaluating the clinical value of ictal dipole modeling constrained by SPECT. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: A successful outcome will substantially improve the clinical application of SPECT to locate the specific zone in the brain where seizures start and thus minimize the use of intracranial electrodes in presurgical diagnostic studies. This will significantly reduce the costs and patient stress associated with these studies.