Science have been studying whether dogs can be trained to detect seizures for some time and the results are more surprising than anyone thought.

The results were very clear: All the dogs in the study detected a unique seizure odour and associated it with a response.

The dogs were so accurate, that the scientific measures of sensitivity and specificity were amongst the highest shown to this time for discrimination of diseases.

This constitutes a first proof that, despite the variety of seizures and individual odours, seizures are associated with a unique odour. 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 and the potential to train Assistance Dogs so the pet industry to help epileptics all over the
world.

(more…)