A Novel Spike Detection Algorithm Based on Multi-Channel of BECT EEG Signals

Benign childhood epilepsy with centro-temporal spikes (BECT) is one of the most common epilepsy syndromes in childhood which is typically characterized by localized discharges in the central and temporal regions. Traditionally, the recognition of spikes requires visual assessment of long-term EEG recordings which is time consuming and subjective because it depends on the knowledge and experience of the doctor. Therefore, a novel multi-step spike detection algorithm based on average reference (AV) channel and bipolar (BP) channel BECT EEG is proposed, including candidate spike detection algorithm, false positive spike (FPS) elimination, spike feature extraction and random forest (RF) classification. The proposed method is evaluated using 7 routine EEG recordings. This brief shows that the sensitivity (Sen), specificity (Spe), selectivity (Sel) and accuracy (AC) obtained by the proposed method are 97.4%, 96.5%, 96.6% and 96.9%, respectively. Experimental results show that the proposed method is capable of detecting BECT spikes efficiently.