Validation of a smartphone-based EEG among people with epilepsy: A prospective study

Abstract

Our objective was to assess the ability of a smartphone-based electroencephalography (EEG) application, the Smartphone Brain Scanner-2 (SBS2), to detect epileptiform abnormalities compared to standard clinical EEG. The SBS2 system consists of an Android tablet wirelessly connected to a 14-electrode EasyCap headset (cost ~ 300 USD). SBS2 and standard EEG were performed in people with suspected epilepsy in Bhutan (2014–2015), and recordings were interpreted by neurologists. Among 205 participants (54% female, median age 24 years), epileptiform discharges were detected on 14% of SBS2 and 25% of standard EEGs. The SBS2 had 39.2% sensitivity (95% confidence interval (CI) 25.8%, 53.9%) and 94.8% specificity (95% CI 90.0%, 97.7%) for epileptiform discharges with positive and negative predictive values of 0.71 (95% CI 0.51, 0.87) and 0.82 (95% CI 0.76, 0.89) respectively. 31% of focal and 82% of generalized abnormalities were identified on SBS2 recordings. Cohen’s kappa (κ) for the SBS2 EEG and standard EEG for the epileptiform versus non-epileptiform outcome was κ = 0.40 (95% CI 0.25, 0.55). No safety or tolerability concerns were reported. Despite limitations in sensitivity, the SBS2 may become a viable supportive test for the capture of epileptiform abnormalities, and extend EEG access to new, especially resource-limited, populations at a reduced cost.

Peer Review #3 of "Comparison of mobile and clinical EEG sensors through resting state simultaneous data collection (v0.1)"

“…when comparing wet and dry electrodes). This result agrees with our previous study, where trained neurologists were clinically investigating the data (12), and with a number of other studies done on Epoc Emotiv in different contexts (11,20). However, to our best knowledge, a fully automated approach in combination with the resting state data was not previously reported.…”

“…Unfortunately, all described methods require performing the data collection under carefully controlled conditions, which is not always possible in a clinical environment. Some earlier publications (12,20) proposed a solution based on professional human assessment, however this approach brings a number of problems, such as subjective judgement and high variation of the scores (12). Therefore, an objective, computer-based way of comparison is needed.…”

Reliable and automatic epilepsy classification with affordable, consumer-grade electroencephalography in rural sub-Saharan Africa

“…Cooperation with local partners is essential for its success. A recent study has shown the potential impact of teleneurology for diagnosing epilepsy, using wireless consumer-grade EEG recordings [21]. We believe that our experience could be another step forward in this innovative field and may stimulate other contributions that may help to close the epilepsy diagnostic gap in regions where the burden of this disabling disease is highest.…”

Smartphone Apps in the Context of Tinnitus: Systematic Review

“…Over the past few years, research showed that the signals acquired via wireless mobile EEG headset devices are similar to those obtained with standard EEG laboratory equipment and traditional rating scales or diagnostic assessments [112,113]. Due to the increasing interest in mobile EEG applications, our search revealed several EEG apps, but not many were designed for research or medical applications.…”