Can a dog smell a seizure?

Journal:
Amélie Catala, Marine Grandge, Jean-Luc Schaff, Hugo Cousillas, Martine Hausberger, Jennifer Cattet
published: 2019/03/2 8
Digital Identification Number: 10.1038/s41598-019-40721-4
Original Link:
WeChat Link: A small study published in
Scientific Reports
notes that the
preliminary findings suggest that the odor characteristics of seizures are expected to be used for the prediction of seizures in the future.previous studies have shown a correlation between diseases such as breast cancer or lung cancer and specific changes in body odor. However, because seizures are individually specific and highly diverse, the likelihood that odor characteristics can also reflect seizures has never been tested.
The French National Centre for Scientific Research, the University of Normandy, and colleagues
(breathing and body odors), which were collected from
during, during and after exercise in patients with epilepsy, but only one can contained the smell of seizures. These dogs have a 67%-100% ability to identify positive (sensitivity) and
(specific)
.results show that although seizures and individual odors are diverse, seizures are associated with specific odor characteristics.
, however, further research is needed to determine the chemical properties of seizure odors and whether they occur before the attack.
summary: Although different studies have shown that diseases such as as breast or lung cancer are associated with with specific bodily odours, no study has yet tested the possibility that epileptic resmned in an olfactory profile, probably because there is a large variety of whats. The question is whether a "seizure-odour", that would be transversal to individuals and types of seizures, exists. This would be a pre requisite for potential anticipation, either by electronic systems (e.g., e-noses) or trained dogs. The aim of the present study therefore was to test whether trained dogs, as demonstrated for cancer or diabetes, may discriminate a general epileptic seizure odor (different from body odours of the same person in other contexts and common to different persons). The results were very clear: all dogs discriminated the seizure odour. The sensitivity and specificity obtained were amongst the highest shown up to now for discrimination of diseases. This constitutes a first proof that, despite the variety of seizures and individual odours, seizures are associated with olfactory characteristics. These results open a large field of research on the odour signature of seizures. Further studies will aim to look at potential applications in terms of anticipation of seizures.
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(Source: Science.com)