A comparative study on the detection and localization of interictal epileptiform discharges in magnetoencephalography using optically pumped magnetometers versus superconducting quantum interference devices

作者：Jiechuan Ren, Ming Ding, Yuming Peng, Chang Sun, Chunqing Yang, Shuxian Zhou, Jiayin Tian, Qun Wang, Zhimei Li · 发表于：NeuroImage · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121232 · 被引用次数：16 · 研究领域：Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research、Epilepsy research and treatment、Functional Brain Connectivity Studies

• The applicability of OPM-MEG was assessed in a large cohort of patients with epilepsy. • OPM-MEG had comparable ability in IED detection compared with SQUID-MEG. • OPM-MEG showed significantly higher IED amplitude and SNR than SQUID-MEG. • OPM-MEG exhibited nearly consistent source localization with SQUID-MEG. Superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID)-based magnetoencephalography (MEG) holds substantial clinical value in epilepsy examination but is limited by the high costs. The optically pumped magnetometer (OPM)-based MEG appears promising in overcoming these limitations. This study aims to explore the consistency of interictal epileptiform discharge (IED) detection and source localization between OPM-MEG and SQUID-MEG in a large cohort of patients with epilepsy. Patients with epilepsy underwent SQUID-MEG and 128-channel whole-scalp OPM-MEG examinations. IED detection, amplitude, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), sensor-scalp distance, and source localization results were compared between OPM-MEG and SQUID-MEG through statistical analysis. The cohort comprised 46 patients with epilepsy (mean age, 23.7 ± 8.7 [SD] years; 29 male). McNemar χ 2 test indicated no significant difference for IED detection between two systems. OPM-MEG achieved a detection accuracy of 91.3 % compared with SQUID-MEG; a Gwet's first-order agreement coefficient (AC 1 ) of 0.892 suggested good consistency. Among 39 patients with IEDs detected by both systems, OPM-MEG demonstrated closer sensor-sc...