Alzghoul Salah Eldeen Moleh Falah, Alajlouni Sa'ed Ahmad Qwaiteen
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan.
Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan.
J Med Signals Sens. 2022 Nov 10;12(4):326-333. doi: 10.4103/jmss.jmss_138_21. eCollection 2022 Oct-Dec.
To develop a wearable device that can detect epilepsy seizures. In particular, due to their prevalence, attention is focused on detecting the generalized tonic-clonic seizure (GTCS) type. When a seizure is detected, an alert phone call is initiated and an alarm SMS sent to the nearest health-care provider (and/or a predesignated family member), including the patient's location as global positioning system (GPS) coordinates. A wearable belt is developed including an Arduino processor that constantly acquires data from four different sensing modalities and monitors the acquired signal patterns for abnormalities. The sensors are a heart rate sensor, electromyography sensor, blood oxygen level (oxygen saturation) sensor, and an accelerometer to detect sudden falls. Higher-than-normal threshold levels are established for each sensor's signal. If two or more signal measurements exceed the corresponding threshold value for a predetermined time interval, then the seizure alarm is triggered. Clinical trials were not pursued in this study as this is the initial phase of system development (phase 0). Instead, the instrumented belt seizure detection prototype was tested on nine healthy individuals mimicking, to some degree, seizure symptoms. A total of eighteen trials took place of which half had <2 sensor thresholds exceeded and no alarm, whereas the other half resulted in activating the alarm when two or more sensor thresholds were exceeded for at least the predetermined time interval corresponding to each of the higher-than-normal sensor readings. For each trial that triggered the alarm when a seizure was detected, the on-board GPS and global system for mobile communication (GSM) units successfully initiated an alert phone call to a predesignated number in addition to sending an SMS message, including GPS location coordinates. Continuous real-time monitoring of signals from the four different sensors allows the developed wearable belt to detect GTCS while reducing false alarms. The proposed device produces an important alarm that may save a patient's life.
开发一种能够检测癫痫发作的可穿戴设备。特别是，由于全身性强直阵挛发作（GTCS）类型较为常见，因此重点关注对其进行检测。当检测到癫痫发作时，会发起警报电话，并向最近的医疗保健提供者（和/或预先指定的家庭成员）发送警报短信，其中包括患者作为全球定位系统（GPS）坐标的位置。开发了一种可穿戴腰带，其中包括一个Arduino处理器，该处理器不断从四种不同的传感模式获取数据，并监测采集到的信号模式是否异常。这些传感器包括心率传感器、肌电图传感器、血氧水平（氧饱和度）传感器以及用于检测突然跌倒的加速度计。为每个传感器的信号设定高于正常的阈值水平。如果在预定的时间间隔内两个或更多信号测量值超过相应的阈值，则触发癫痫发作警报。本研究未进行临床试验，因为这是系统开发的初始阶段（0期）。相反，在九名健康个体上对配备仪器的腰带癫痫发作检测原型进行了测试，这些个体在一定程度上模拟了癫痫发作症状。总共进行了18次试验，其中一半试验中少于2个传感器阈值被超过且未发出警报，而另一半试验中，当两个或更多传感器阈值在至少与每个高于正常传感器读数对应的预定时间间隔内被超过时，警报被触发。对于每次检测到癫痫发作时触发警报的试验，除了发送包含GPS位置坐标的短信外，板载GPS和全球移动通信系统（GSM）单元还成功地向预先指定的号码发起了警报电话。对来自四个不同传感器的信号进行连续实时监测，使得所开发的可穿戴腰带能够检测GTCS，同时减少误报。所提出的设备会发出重要警报，这可能会挽救患者的生命。
