"An implanted device that monitors brain activity may offer a way to predict seizures in people with uncontrolled epilepsy a small pilot study suggests. The findings reported online May  in the journal Lancet Neurology are based on only  patients and the device worked far better in some than others. But experts said the results are promising and should prompt further studies. We just wanted to see if this is feasible and this study shows that it is said lead researcher Dr. Mark Cook of the University of Melbourne and St. Vincents Hospital in Australia. The prospect of being able to predict seizures is very exciting he said in part because its the uncertainty of the disorder that can dim peoples quality of life. If people know a seizure is coming Cook said they can avoid driving or swimming that day for example. They might also be able to adjust their medication use. Epilepsy is a neurological disorder in which the brains normal electrical activity is temporarily disrupted leading to a seizure. Seizures can be obvious causing unconsciousness or convulsions but often they trigger subtler changes in a persons perceptions or behavior  like a short staring spell confusion or an altered sense of taste or smell. Epilepsy is usually managed with medication but for  percent to  percent of people with the condition drugs dont keep seizures at bay. The new study included  people who were having at least two to  disabling seizures a month that were resistant to drug therapy. Cooks team implanted each patient with the experimental device which consists of electrodes placed between the skull and the brain plus wires that run to a unit implanted under the skin of the chest. That unit wirelessly sends data to a handheld device that flashes a red warning light if there is a high likelihood of an impending seizure. A white light signals a moderate likelihood while a blue light means the odds are low. For the first four months the devices collected data on patients seizures without actually flashing warnings. For  of the  patients the implants seemed capable of correctly predicting a high risk of seizure at least  percent of the time. Those patients went on to the next fourmonth phase where the devices were activated to give warnings. Over those four months the implants worked fairly well for eight patients  correctly giving the highrisk warning anywhere from  percent to  percent of the time. There are plenty of questions left said Dr. Ashesh Mehta director of epilepsy surgery at the North ShoreLIJ Comprehensive Epilepsy Care Center in Great Neck N.Y. This study is an important first step said Mehta who was not involved in the research. The next step would be to implant these in a larger sample of patients. And you need to see which groups of patients might be good candidates for this. Mehta said someone who has seizures only once in a while might not get enough benefit to outweigh the downsides of false alarms for example. And someone who has many seizures each month might get little added information from the warning system he said. It may be the people who fall in the middle  who have disabling seizures at unpredictable intervals  who would stand to benefit the most he said. But any benefits need to be weighed against the risks. Besides false alarms and unnecessary anxiety the implant itself can cause problems. In this study three patients had serious complications including one with an infection and one whose chest device moved and caused her pain. Two patients ultimately had the implants removed. Still Mehta agreed that the technology could prove helpful to some people with epilepsy. If they know a seizure is coming they might take an extra dose of their medication for example. An implanted device like this could also give patients and their doctors more information about their epilepsy he added. In this study the implants revealed that most patients were suffering more seizures than they thought one patient who reported  a month was actually having more than . In real life Mehta said it can be hard to know if youre feeling bad because of side effects from epilepsy medication or because youre having a lot of seizures. A device like this could help sort that out. But whats still needed is evidence that this device does improve the quality of patients lives Mehta said. The study was funded by NeuroVista the Seattlebased company developing the technology. Several of Cooks coresearchers work for the company. More information Learn more about epilepsy from the Epilepsy Foundation. http SOURCES Mark Cook M.D. professor neurology University of Melbourne St. Vincents Hospital Melbourne Australia Ashesh Mehta M.D. Ph.D. director epilepsy surgery North ShoreLIJ Comprehensive Epilepsy Care Center Great Neck N.Y. May   Lancet Neurology online"