Identification of ictal tachycardia in focal motor- and non-motor seizures by means of a wearable PPG sensor

Abstract: Photoplethysmography (PPG) as an additional biosignal for a seizure detector has been underutilized so far, which is possibly due to its susceptibility to motion artifacts. We investigated 62 focal seizures from 28 patients with electrocardiography-based evidence of ictal tachycardia (IT). Seizures were divided into subgroups: those without epileptic movements and those with epileptic movements not affecting and affecting the extremities. PPG-based heart rate (HR) derived from a wrist-worn device was calculated for sections with high signal quality, which were identified using spectral entropy. Overall, IT based on PPG was identified in 37 of 62 (60%) seizures (9/19, 7/8, and 21/35 in the three groups, respectively) and could be found prior to the onset of epileptic movements affecting the extremities in 14/21 seizures. In 30/37 seizures, PPG-based IT was in good temporal agreement (<10 s) with ECG-based IT, with an average delay of 5.0 s relative to EEG onset. In summary, we observed that the identification of IT by means of a wearable PPG sensor is possible not only for non-motor seizures but also in motor seizures, which is due to the early manifestation of IT in a relevant subset of focal seizures. However, both spontaneous and epileptic movements can impair PPG-based seizure detection

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Sensors. - 21, 18 (2021) , 6017, ISSN: 1424-8220

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Freiburg
• (who): Universität
• (when): 2021
• Creator: Glasstetter, Martin ; Böttcher, Sebastian ; Zabler, Nicolas ; Epitashvili, Nino ; Dümpelmann, Matthias ; Richardson, Mark P. ; Schulze-Bonhage, Andreas

Further information

• DOI: 10.3390/s21186017
• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:25-freidok-2216395
• Rights: Kein Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 15.08.2025, 7:28 AM CEST