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A Handy EEG Electrode Set for patients suffering from altered mental state

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Abstract

Although electroencephalography (EEG) is an important diagnostic tool for investigating patients with unexplained altered mental state (AMS), recording of emergency EEG is not a clinical routine. This is mainly due to the cumbersome electrode solutions. A Handy EEG Electrode Set consists of ten EEG, two EOG, two ground and two commutative reference hydrogel-coated silver wire electrodes attached to a thin polyester carrier film. The clinical usefulness of the Handy EEG Electrode Set was tested in 13 patients (five females, eight males) with AMS. EEG recordings were conducted at the same time with a standard 10–20 electrode set. The registration in the first patient case without the behind-ear electrodes (T9 and T10), indicated that these electrodes are very crucial to provide clinically relevant information from posterior regions of brain. In following 12 cases, the sensitivity and specificity for detecting EEG abnormality based on the Handy EEG Electrode Set recordings were 83 and 100 %, respectively. The Handy EEG Electrode Set proved to be easy to use and to provide valuable information for the neurophysiological evaluation of a patient suffering from AMS. However, further studies with larger number of patients are warranted to clarify the true diagnostic accuracy and applicability of this approach.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Petro Julkunen, Pekka Tiihonen, Ari Pääkkönen and staff from the Department of Clinical Neurophysiology of the Kuopio University Hospital for their contributions to this work. This study was financially supported, by the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (grant 70019/11, “Fabrication and Commercialization of the Forehead EEG Electrode Set”), Kuopio University Hospital (EVO grants 5041734 and 5041735) and Runar Bäckström Foundation (“Electrode Array for Monitoring Electrical Activity in the Brain (2013)”). KM is supported by the Foundation for Advanced Technology of Eastern Finland, Finnish Cultural Foundation of Northern Savo and Finnish Brain Foundation. PL is supported by the Finnish Brain Research and Rehabilitation Foundation and the Instrumentarium Science Foundation.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest and the studies were performed according to current Finnish laws.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Kuopio University Hospital, POB 100, 70029, Kuopio, Finland

    Pasi Lepola, Juha Töyräs, Taina Hukkanen, Esa Mervaala, Sara Määttä & Katja Myllymaa

  2. Department of Applied Physics, University of Eastern Finland, POB 1627, 70211, Kuopio, Finland

    Pasi Lepola, Sami Myllymaa, Juha Töyräs & Reijo Lappalainen

  3. SIB Labs, University of Eastern Finland, POB 1627, 70211, Kuopio, Finland

    Sami Myllymaa & Reijo Lappalainen

  4. Institute of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, POB 100, 70029, Kuopio, Finland

    Esa Mervaala

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  1. Pasi Lepola
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  2. Sami Myllymaa
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  3. Juha Töyräs
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  4. Taina Hukkanen
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  8. Katja Myllymaa
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Correspondence to Pasi Lepola.

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Lepola, P., Myllymaa, S., Töyräs, J. et al. A Handy EEG Electrode Set for patients suffering from altered mental state. J Clin Monit Comput 29, 697–705 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10877-014-9652-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10877-014-9652-9

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