Emergency Rapid Response to Epileptic Seizures - A Novel IOT Framework for Smart Cities

Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder that results in seizures in patients of all ages. The frequency of seizure episodes can be controlled by prescribing anti-seizure drugs. Drug-resistant epilepsy is a condition where the seizures are uncontrolled by strong medications. Such patients are at a high risk of getting seizures frequently and prone to injuries due to sudden falls. Many countries prohibit epileptic patients from driving as sudden seizure attacks can cause loss of lives and property. In the past decades immense work has been carried out in the to monitor the seizure activity in patients and alert caregivers to extend help in emergencies. The study proposes a smart health care Internet of things framework to provide immediate help to the epileptic patient during an episode while travelling in a self-driving car. In the proposed framework, the seizure alert from a wearable device of the patient is transmitted to the control application via cloud. The control application also receives data from the vision, ultrasonic, and radar sensors. The critical information of seizure alert and the sensor data commands the car to force stop. The seizure google map location of the car is sent to the patient’s caregiver as well as the registered hospital. Many applications are being developed to provide luxury and comfort to fully automated car drivers. Far from providing luxury to the driver Emergency Rapid Response to Epileptic Seizure aims to propose a solution that could save the life of an epileptic patient who is drug-resistant or prone to frequent attacks despite severe medications. The experimental results on synchonization of clouds show that the minimum time is 30 sec 30 ms and maximum time is 31 sec 63 ms. The experimental results prove that its recommended to alert the patient's caregiver directly from control application rather than alerting via cloud.

Iatrogenic Hypoglycemia Induced by Valproic Acid in an Adult Patient

Literature on antiepileptic induced iatrogenic hypoglycemia is scanty. Due to its broad spectrum of activity and mechanisms of action, valproic acid (VPA), a fatty acid, is the most widely prescribed epilepsy treatment worldwide.Herein, we describe an adult epileptic patient, where persistent, otherwise unexplained hypoglycemia, was most likely induced by VPA, as suggested by the VPA time course and glucose blood levels. Indeed, no further hypoglycemic episodes occurred after VPA discontinuation and the diagnostic work-up ruled out other possible causes of hypoglycemia.This case supports the hypothesis that VPA may induce hypoglycemia, due to still not well-defined metabolic mechanisms of action. Moreover, it emphasizes the fact that an iatrogenic pathogenesis should be considered if an apparently unexplained hypoglycemia occurs in a patient on chronic therapy with antiepileptics, even at a therapeutical dosage.