Breathing problems may help explain why some people with epilepsy are at risk of Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP). Researchers have found that unusual breathing patterns, even when a person is not having a seizure, may be linked to a higher risk of SUDEP. However, epilepsy monitoring units (EMUs) do not always include direct measurements of breathing, which limits what researchers can learn from existing data.
Dr. Ryan will use mathematics and artificial intelligence to estimate breathing patterns from heart recordings that are routinely collected in EMUs. Using these data, Dr. Ryan and his team will be able to study breathing changes before, during, and between seizures in many more patients than was previously possible. The findings could lead to new heart biomarkers to help identify people at higher risk of SUDEP.
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