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REVIEW article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Neurology and Neurosurgery
Volume 11 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1402546
This article is part of the Research Topic Epilepsy in Veterinary Science - Volume II View all 4 articles
Electroencephalography: Electrode Arrays in Dogs
Provisionally accepted- 1 Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada
- 2 School of Engineering, College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Guelph, 5 Guelph, Ontario, Canada, Guelph, Canada
- 3 Division of Neurology, Department of paediatrics, University of Toronto, Sick Kids Research Institute, Toronto, Canada
Electroencephalography (EEG) is the gold standard for confirming epileptic seizures in both human and veterinary patients. Despite idiopathic epilepsy being one of the most common neurological conditions in dogs, our understanding of it in veterinary medicine lags that in human medicine. The relative underuse of EEG in dogs with seizures has potential causes including practical issues, financial concerns, lack of training/equipment, and questions of clinical value. This technological underuse may lead to, or result from, major gaps in our understanding of EEG in veterinary patients. This underutilization of EEG is of significant clinical relevance because the diagnosis of specific epilepsy syndromes in humans guides the treatment, namely pharmacological, dietary, or surgical. These epilepsy syndromes are diagnosed based on several factors, one of which is the characteristic electrical brain activity on EEG. The aim of this narrative literature review was to highlight the study of cortical brain activity to improve our understanding of EEG in veterinary medicine. Specifically, the utility of EEG with focus on the existing proposed electrode arrays and their current supporting evidence. A recent survey study confirmed that a variety of canine EEG protocols are concurrently in use, including diverse electrode arrays. By comparison, in humans there is a standardised 10-20 electrode array, with average localization error of 13-17 mm depending on the number of placed electrodes on the scalp. We offer a review of the factors that would contribute to the ideal canine EEG electrode array highlighting areas for improvement and future validation. This proposed level of understanding will facilitate the identification of cortical seizure foci with a known degree of error, paving the way for non-pharmaceutical interventions like epilepsy surgeries.
Keywords: Dogs, Electroencephalography, Epilepsy, Seizures, Standardised electrode placement
Received: 17 Mar 2024; Accepted: 01 Nov 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 Everest, Gaitero, Dony, Zur Linden, Cortez and James. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Stephen J. Everest, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada
Fiona M. James, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada
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