Improving the identification of High Frequency Oscillations

ObjectiveHigh Frequency Oscillations (HFOs), including Ripples (80–250 Hz) and Fast Ripples (250–500 Hz), can be recorded from intracranial macroelectrodes in patients with intractable epilepsy. We implemented a procedure to establish the duration for which a stable measurement of rate of HFOs is achieved.MethodsTo determine concordance, Kappa coefficient was computed. The information gained when increasing the duration was analyzed in terms of HFO rates and ranking of channels with respect to HFO and spike rates.ResultsIn a group of 30 patients, Kappa was 0.7 for ripples, 0.7 for fast ripples and 0.67 for spikes. Five minutes provided the same information as 10 min in terms of rates in 9/10 patients and with respect to ranking of channels in 8/10 patients; 5/30 patients did not achieve stable measurements of HFOs or spikes and needed marking for 10 min.ConclusionWe propose that 5 min provides in most cases the same information as a longer interval when identifying HFOs and spikes in slow wave sleep, and present methods to identify when this is not the case.SignificanceThis procedure is useful to control for consistency between readers and to evaluate if the selected interval provides stable information, for automatic and visual identification of events.