CDH Adds Ambulatory EEG testing

NORTHAMPTON — In late October, Cooley Dickinson Hospital-affiliated neurologist George Howard, MD in collaboration with Cooley’s Cardiology Department employees formed the first community hospital-based team to offer AEEG (ambulatory electroencephalograph) monitoring to observe human brain activity.

AEEG represents a new level of diagnostic service that CDH offers to adult and pediatric patients.

Commonly called a brain wave test, an EEG is a recording of the brain’s electrical activity. EEGs often are used to obtain information about intermittent attacks of neurological symptoms such as confusion or changes in behavior. Dr. Howard says that AEEGs can capture events that might be situational or likely to occur only while a patient is sleeping at home.

AEEG is generally performed after a routine EEG has failed to turn up enough information for a diagnosis. The longer recording time — the test provides 24 hours of data for interpretation — and the likelihood of recording a period of natural sleep — make this test more sensitive for the detection of epileptic activity. AEEGs can help distinguish seizures from other causes of intermittent symptoms: inner ear disorders, TIAs (transient ischemic attack), and psychiatric conditions such as panic attacks and dissociative disorders.

CDH will continue to offer hospital-based EEG to inpatients and to outpatients who require shorter studies.