Predicting neuropathic pain episodes in spinal cord injury patients through portable EEG and machine learning

Project Information

Pain_App

Grant agreement ID: 101030384

DOI

10.3030/101030384

Project closed

EC signature date 30 March 2021

Start date 1 April 2021

End date 31 March 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 203 852,16

EU contribution

€ 203 852,16

Coordinated by

MALMO UNIVERSITET
Sweden

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Pain_App (Predicting neuropathic pain episodes in spinal cord injury patients through portable EEG and machine learning)

Reporting period: 2021-04-01 to 2023-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Neuropathic pain (NP) is a common symptom arising as a direct consequence of a lesion or disease affecting the somatosensory system. The traditional approach to managing NP patients is to initiate treatment with conservative pharmacological therapy before interventional strategies. However, first-line drug treatments have shown modest efficacy with less than 50% of pain relief. Since NP is present in ~70% of patients with spinal cord injury (SCI), people with this pathology represent a reliable population to study NP. Interestingly, previous studies have shown a clear correlation between NP and changes in electroencephalography (EEG), which is a good indicator of the state of the central nervous system. Characterized and developed technology to calculate NP would have a great impact on the quality of life of the patients. Personalized pharmacological treatments would increase their efficacy. PAIN_App is built in state-of-the-art digital health technology (a smartphone app, smartwatch, and a portable EEG) and aims to identify the biosignals that determine the intensity of NP in SCI. Based on initial analysis, the data collected has shown a moderate correlation to some features of the EEG, however, more analysis are currently being conducting

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project Pain_App is still developing but has been successfully integrated with the Mobistudy App. Moreover, Pain_App has been understood and executed correctly by the patients. The project has faced challenges regarding the feasibility of the technology rather the complexity on the performance by the patients, which have provided with positive feedback. Data analysis is still running; however, the MSCA fellow has been very fruitful in presenting preliminary data (1 poster at the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and 2 conference papers at the 11 th International Conference on the Internet of Things and EAI PervasiveHealth).
In addition, Pain_App has had a great impact in the career of the fellow since it has allowed her to secure a faculty position at the University of Seville, Spain.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Pain_App is still defining accurate biomarkers related with the neuropathic pain. Once it will be defined, the fellow will proceed for testing the tech in real life.

Paper