Image Credit: NeuroVista
Seattle-based NeuroVista was founded in 2002 by Dr. Daniel DiLorenzo to develop an implantable device for the early detection of epileptic seizures.
The NeuroVista seizure advisory system is based on an implantable device that senses EEG irregularities that precede a seizure. Early warning allows patients to take medicine and find a safe place to lie down. Although some epilepsy sufferers can feel seizures coming, many cannot.
In NeuroVista’s Seizure Advisory System (SAS), intracranial EEG signals are recorded through electrodes implanted between the skull and the brain surface. Data storage and signal telemetry takes place within the pectorally-implanted can that transmits signals wirelessly to an external handheld device that processes the data and transmits visual and audible signals to the patient. The external pager-like receiver displays a blue light when there is a low likelihood of seizures, white indicates medium susceptibility, and red alerts to a high likelihood of impending seizure.
In August 2010 NeuroVista announced that it had raised $21.5M to further develop and test its device. A study of the system on 15 patients was presented on December 2011 at the annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society.
Click here for NeuroVista’s patents and patent applications