HOW THE THE SPEAC® SYSTEM WORKS

It all starts with the SPEAC surface electromyography (sEMG) monitor which must be on top of the belly of your biceps muscle. This lightweight, non-invasive monitor continuously senses and monitors your sEMG signals which reflect the activity in the motor cortices of your brain. The sEMG monitor takes 1,000 sEMG samples every second. Brain Sentinel’s SparkSenseTM diagnostic algorithm analyzes those samples in real time, looking for tonic-clonic muscle activity that is indicative of a GTC seizure. Once recorded, the data are sent to and stored securely by Brain Sentinel where we begin analyzing all the hours of data. At the end of a monitoring period, your physician will receive a summary report to help with the diagnosis and clinical decisions.

Why the Biceps Muscle?

Image of man's arm showing how you would wear the SPEAC system monitor and alert device on the belly of the bicep

The biceps muscle acts as an amplifier for the motor cortices of the brain. These regions of the brain are hyperactivated when tonic-clonic seizures generalize. When activated by a GTC seizure, the SPEAC monitor – using our patented SparkSense algorithm – can identify it, record it, and alarm for it. For the SPEAC monitor to work properly, it must be placed on the biceps muscle.The belly of the biceps is the thickest part of the muscle, about halfway between your shoulder and elbow.The only place for the sEMG monitor is on your biceps muscle, specifically on top of what is called the “belly of the biceps” as seen in the above image. To find the belly of the biceps, bend your arm at the elbow and make a fist.

sEMG Is More Than Motion – It Goes Beyond What’s Skin Deep

During the tonic phase of the generalized tonic-clonic seizure, your muscles clench. Movement may be so subtle that an accelerometer or other motion detectors wouldn’t be able to pick up that a seizure is occurring. Changes in your sEMG might be the only signal that a GTC seizure has begun. In addition, signal analyses that are conducted on your recorded sEMG may reveal other motor events that weren’t alarmed in real-time.

In real-time, the SPEAC System’s patented SparkSense algorithm gives you:

  • Real-time sampling of your sEMG signal 1,000 times a second (1,000 Hz)
  • Real-time analysis of changes to your sEMG that may be indicative of a GTC seizure

Every day after monitoring, the SPEAC System’s data analyzers go to work to give you: