Projo Biz Blog

« Whitehouse talks with small-business executives on healthcare | Main | Keno plan in Connecticut no sure thing »

New electrode developed at URI could treat epilepsy

6:00 PM Mon, Jun 01, 2009 | Permalink
By C. Eugene Emery Jr.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. -- You probably know about electrodes, especially if they've been put on your chest to measure your heartbeat. Most gather up electrical impulses from a wide area of the body.

Electrode next to a penny

But a University of Rhode Island researcher says he has developed a electrode with two concentric rings around its core, making the device four times more sensitive and able to focus in on specific parts of the body, while screening out more electrical chaff.

The device, barely the size of a contact lens with rings made of gold-plated copper, may also be able to send electrical signals to specific parts of the body, making it easier to treat some forms of epilepsy.

"It focuses the stimulation down into the tissue," said URI biomedical engineer Walter Besio, who calls his devices "tri-polar concentric electrodes" because of the concentric rings and metal core that soak up the electrical impulses.

Having three conducting elements instead of the one found on conventional electrodes lets him subtract out unwanted electrical noise when the device is in a listening mode.

"If you put an innertube in a pool of water, inside the water is flat," he explained. The ring system "is an attenuator for all that chop."

Besio

Just being able to listen more carefully to the electrical impulses in the body, and particularly in the brain, has big advantages.

It may be sensitive enough to read subtle movements or thoughts, giving paralyzed people better control of artificial limbs.

"Presently, non-invasive systems are black and white, on or off. They can either do something, or not do something," said Besio. "With the higher sensitivity of these electrodes, we can get information from more specific areas of the brain to perceived thoughts, and have more than just an on-off switch."

The other area where he thinks the two-ring electrodes might be useful is in treating epilepsy.

"I heard from a lot of my neurologist colleagues, and from parents of children who have gone through non-invasive procedures to find out where the seizure is originating, that many times they never find it. This kind of electrode should give them that kind of capability," said Besio.

Not only does it seem to listen better to the impulses doctors want to measure, the new electrode may also transmit impulses to various parts of the body, a development that may be useful for treating the epilepsy by sending electrical signals to the part of the brain that is misfiring, calming the errant electrical activity without the need for drugs and surgery.

"For some seizures they're drilling holes in the head to put electrodes inside," he said.

It may be particularly useful for life-threatening seizures that last 30 minutes or more, a condition known as status epilepticus, which kills up to 40,000 people in the U.S. each year.

"If you can [use the electrode] to detect a seizure that is about to happen, then apply the stimulation [to prevent it], some people will say you have cured their epilepsy. That's the goal I'm working with," said Besio.

He's been given a $397,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to further develop the design. He will be using the funds, along with a $15,000 grant from the Rhode Island Foundation, to see if using the electrodes to stimulate the body will cause pain, changes in heart rate, or other problems.

The design is under review by the U.S. Patent Office.

Besio said a few companies have expressed an interesting in developing the electrode.

One is Astro-Med Inc. (NASDAQ:ALOT) in West Warwick, which was looking at it for its Grass Technologies product group. But the interest there seems to have waned.

"Another company [outside the U.S.] is pretty much ready to push it. But I'd rather create jobs in Rhode Island than in some other country," Besio said.

gemery@projo.com / (401)277-7442