Every year, millions of people worldwide experience sudden ischemic strokes. When blood clots block the brain’s blood vessels, it leads to inadequate blood supply to the intracranial area, resulting in ischemia in functional brain regions, causing a stroke. For stroke patients, receiving diagnosis and treatment within the “golden two hours” is the only way to prevent permanent disability or death.
Though stroke patients are the highest priority in emergencies, time is of the essence even in the ambulance. Consequently, a team from the Amsterdam University Medical Center has invented a specialized cap based on electroencephalogram (EEG) testing. This cap allows for real-time EEG testing of patients in the ambulance to assess whether they have an ischemic stroke and the extent of the blocked brain blood vessels before they reach the hospital.
The specialized EEG cap can diagnose strokes in the ambulance, enabling patients to receive timely treatment. The cap can accurately identify patients with severe ischemic strokes. This differentiation determines the treatment approach: if it’s a small-area ischemic stroke, patients need to receive blood-thinning agents, while if it’s a large-area ischemic stroke, mechanical removal of the blood clot must be performed in a specialized hospital.
Between 2018 and 2022, intelligent EEG caps were tested on 12 Dutch ambulances, and this research collected data from nearly 400 patients. The study demonstrated that the EEG cap can accurately identify patients with large-area ischemic strokes. This research indicates that the EEG cap performs well in the ambulance environment.
The above results show that the sensitivity is as high as 80%, and the specificity for detecting strokes is as high as 93%. After analyzing data from nearly 400 patients, it is sufficient to demonstrate that this unique “swimming cap” can accurately identify patients with severe ischemic strokes. With such precise potential for this new product, it is expected to bring good news to many patients if it can be successfully promoted.
To develop the EEG cap into a product and bring it to the market, a spin-off company from Amsterdam UMC called TrianecT was established in 2022. Additionally, the research team will develop an artificial intelligence system using more data to create precise algorithms for large-scale strokes, with an expected accuracy exceeding 80%. This follow-up research, named AI-STROKE, has received 4 million euros in funding from the Dutch Heart Foundation to expedite ischemic stroke treatment. At the same time, the project is collecting more measurement results to develop an algorithm to enhance the identification of large-area ischemic strokes in ambulances.
It’s worth mentioning that the device emits microwaves that are 100 times weaker than those produced by mobile phones and only lasts for a few seconds, posing no threat to human health. The “stroke detection” helmet is expected to be approved for sale in Europe later this year.
