This Brain-Wave Cap Can Diagnose a Stroke Right in the Back of an Ambulance, Researchers Find
Rapid back-of-the-ambulance diagnoses mean patients can be routed to the appropriate hospital, literally saving brain matter.
A team from the Amsterdam University Medical Center (UMC), working with first responders and hospitals on the region, have demonstrated how a rapid-fit dry-electrode electroencephalogram (EEG) cap can help to diagnose a stroke in the back of an ambulance — directing the patient to the most appropriate hospital accordingly.
"Our research shows that the brain-wave cap can recognize patients with large ischemic stroke with great accuracy," Jonathan Coutinho, a neurologist at Amsterdam UMC and co-inventor of the swimming-cap-like hat. "This is very good news, because the cap can ultimately save lives by routing these patients directly to the right hospital."
The at-the-scene diagnostic approach invented by Coutinho and colleagues Wouter Potters and Henk Marquering is designed to be as simple to use as possible. Placed on the head and strapped under the chin in seconds, with no need to shave the patient's hair or apply conductive gels, the brain-wave cap allows first responders to take EEG brain activity readings in the back of an ambulance — and that data, the team has proven, can detect ischemic strokes and even whether the blocked blood vessel is large or small.
That latter point is vital: if the blocked blood vessel is small, it can be treated using blood thinners at any hospital; if it's large, it requires surgical intervention in a specialist hospital — and seconds count. "When it comes to stroke, time is literally brain. The sooner we start the right treatment, the better the outcome," Coutinho explains. "If the diagnosis is already clear in the ambulance, the patient can be routed directly to the right hospital, which saves valuable time."
The team's work, which saw tests carried out in 12 Dutch ambulances between 2018 and 2022 covering a total of nearly 400 patients with suspected strokes, has been published in the journal Neurology under open-access terms.
Amsterdam UMC has formed a spin-off company dubbed TrianecT to commercialize the technology and develop an improved algorithm for better detection of large strokes.