Month: March 2019
Ambulatory EEG
Clinical indications
Routine electroencephalography (EEG) suffers from the same problem as a standard 12 lead electrocardiogram (ECG): it is limited in time. A standard ECG captures 10 seconds of the heart’s electrical activity while a standard EEG captures perhaps 10 to 20 minutes of the brain’s electrical activity. While these studies have their respective places in diagnostic medicine, they are limited in their ability to detect sporadic events such as paroxysmal atrial fibrillation in the former case, or a seizure event in the latter. Just as cardiologists have adopted Holter monitoring into clinical practice, so too have neurologists turned to ambulatory EEG for certain diagnostic purposes. We discuss the clinical indications for ambulatory EEG.
Reusable EEG Electrodes May Put Patients at Risk of Infection
Reusable electroencephalographic (EEG) electrodes are under investigation as a potential source of hospital-acquired infection (HAI). Because the traditional EEG procedure involves abrasion of the skin, EEG electrodes are considered semi-critical devices, which require sterilization or high-level disinfection. Inadequately cleaned reusable cup electrodes may harbor bacteria, blood, and microscopic epithelial cells. Indeed, a break in the skin that occurs when applying EEG scalp electrodes creates the risk of infection from blood-borne pathogens such as HIV, Hepatitis-C, and Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease.
