IIT Delhi proposes non-invasive, time-efficient, patient-friendly diagnostic tool for Epileptoge

NEW DELHI: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi researchers led by Professor Lalan Kumar, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Delhi, have come up with a non-invasive EEG based Brain Source Localization (BSL) framework for epilepsy focal detection that is time efficient and patient friendly. Given the EEG data with seizure, the array processing algorithms can point the co-ordinates within minutes. In particular, the researchers have proposed novel head harmonics based algorithms for seizure localization.

Dr Amita Giri, a Prime Minister’s Research Fellows (PMRF) in the Department of Electrical Engineering at IIT Delhi, has developed the novel epileptic region detection method as a major part of her PhD work. The other members of the research team include Prof Tapan K Gandhi, Electrical Engineering Department, IIT Delhi and Dr Nilesh Kurwale, Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital and Research Center, Pune, Maharashtra, India.

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The IIT Delhi researchers have validated the proposed source localization algorithms on clinical EEG data for epileptogenic zone localization. The proposed framework offers an effective solution to clinicians in automated and time efficient seizure localization.

Epilepsy is fourth most common neurological disorder in the world and affects millions worldwide. It involves brief episodes of involuntary body (partial/entire) movement called seizures and may accompanied by loss of consciousness and control of bowel or bladder function, primarily due to erroneous excessive electrical discharges. Quite a lot of epilepsies can be controlled by medicines, however, when medicines fail to control seizures, it is labelled as drug resistant epilepsy, said an official statement from IIT Delhi.

“We have proposed utilization of spherical harmonics and head harmonics basis functions for seizure Localization. To the best our knowledge, this is the first attempt in non-invasive and time efficient seizure Localization,” Prof. Lalan Kumar, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Delhi, said. “It is a breakthrough considering comfort of patients,” he added.