My first Magazine SFI Little Book - April Re-print edits included | Page 40

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A Window on Brain
Seizures in Babies
Researchers in the Science Foundation Ireland
funded INFANT Centre are helping to improve health
outcomes for newborns. Seizures or ‘fits’ are the most
common neurological emergency encountered in the
neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Seizures can be
caused by problems such as lack of oxygen around
the time of birth, haemorrhage and meningitis, if
left untreated, seizures can cause major problems for
the babies.
But here’s the problem: seizures can be very difficult
to detect in newborns as there may be no obvious
outward signs that the baby is experiencing one
and this makes intervention and treatment very
difficult. The only accurate tool for diagnosis is
EEG monitoring, a measure of electrical brain
activity, but newborn EEG interpretation is a highly
specialised skill and few experts are available. Prof
Geraldine Boylan, co-director of the centre, has
been carrying out research with collaborators into
automating EEG interpretation so that seizures can
be detected reliably by non-speciailists in the NICU.
www.infantcentre.ie