Automated detection and correction of eye blink and muscular artefacts in EEG signal for analysis of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neural development disorder affecting the information processing capability of the brain by altering how nerve cells and their synapses interconnect and organize. Electroencephalograph or EEG signals records the electrical activity of the brain from the scalp which can be utilized to identify and investigate the brain wave pattern which are specific to individuals with ASD. Therefore, the analysis of ASD can be done by scrutinizing the specific bands (Theta, Mu and Beta) of the EEG signal. However, EEG signals are mainly contaminated by Ocular (Eye-blink) and Myogenic artefacts which pose problems in EEG interpretation. In this paper an automated real-time method for detection and removal of Ocular and Myogenic artefacts for multichannel EEG signal is proposed which would enhance the diagnostic accuracy. The proposed methodology has been validated against 20 subjects from Caltech, Physionet, Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience and the computed average correlation and regression are 0.7574 and 0.6992 respectively.

Percutaneous retrogasserian radiofrequency thermal rhizotomy for trigeminal neuralgia.

Forty patients suffering from intractable unilateral trigeminal neuralgia involving more than one division of the trigeminal nerve were treated by percutaneous radiofrequency thermocoagulation of the trigeminal sensory root. The aim of the operation was to relieve the pain without producing dense sensory deficit in the face. This goal was achieved by making selective lesions in the sensory root with gradually increasing temperature 60 degrees C to 90 degrees C. Three to four consecutive lesions each for 60 seconds have been found to produce excellent pain relief in 77.7% with good and fair results in the rest. The recurrence rate has been found to be 15% during 2 years of follow-up. Considerable dysaesthesia was observed in 5% of cases. Corneal anaesthesia was found in 5% cases while one patient developed neuroparalytic keratitis. Transient trigeminal motor weakness was observed in 10% of patients.