Variability in the location of high frequency oscillations during prolonged intracranial EEG recordings

The rate of interictal high frequency oscillations (HFOs) is a promising biomarker of the seizure onset zone, though little is known about its consistency over hours to days. Here we test whether the highest HFO-rate channels are consistent across different 10-min segments of EEG during sleep. An automated HFO detector and blind source separation are applied to nearly 3000 total hours of data from 121 subjects, including 12 control subjects without epilepsy. Although interictal HFOs are significantly correlated with the seizure onset zone, the precise localization is consistent in only 22% of patients. The remaining patients either have one intermittent source (16%), different sources varying over time (45%), or insufficient HFOs (17%). Multiple HFO networks are found in patients with both one and multiple seizure foci. These results indicate that robust HFO interpretation requires prolonged analysis in context with other clinical data, rather than isolated review of short data segments.High frequency oscillations (HFO) are a promising biomarker for identifying epileptogenic zones without the need to monitor spontaneous seizure episodes. Here the authors report that there is much variability in the location of HFOs offering a note of caution toward using HFO locations from short recordings as a guide for surgery.