Can home videos facilitate diagnosis of epilepsy?

A recent study by the AIIMS has revealed that video recording the seizure of epilepsy patients by the family members or their care takers immensely helps the doctors in treating them. The study has revealed that home videos were more reliable in picking semiological signs and classifying epilepsy type than the history provided by caregivers of patients for better treatment.

The study was conducted by the neurology department of AIIMS to evaluate the feasibility and yield of semiological features from home videos and compare them with history provided by the caregivers of a person with epilepsy.

“Home videos were collected from 312 patients and 624 seizures were analyzed. A total of 572 seizures in 282 patients admitted in epilepsy monitoring unit were evaluated on Video Electroencephalography ( VEEG). We found that bilateral generalised clonic movements of limbs, motor movement

A recent study revealed that home videos were more reliable in picking semiological signs and classifying epilepsy type than the history provided by caregivers of patients for better treatment

around mouth, fear, visual phenomenon, hemisenso-ry phenomenon and pos-tictal unilateral weakness had the highest accuracy,” said Dr Deepa Dash, assistant professor at department of neurology, AIIMS.

Researchers classified epilepsy type using home videos and medical history and compared it to that using VEEG finding. “The study helped us to identify epilepsy type from which the patients were suffering. A larger number of patients were correctly categorised into focal epilepsy group when home videos were used for classification compared to when medical history was used,” said Dr Manjari Tripathi, professor at department of neurology, AIIMS.

Dr Tripathi further said that home videos end discrepancies in description of seizures and help medical professionals in correctly classifying type and syndrome. “It also guides the physician in starting the appropriate antiepileptic drug for the patient. In patients with drug resistant epilepsy, the description of semiology also helps in the lateralisation and localisations of the possible ictal zone. This is important for building a hypothesis before the patient undergoes other pre- surgical investigation for epilepsy surgery,” added Dr Tripathi.