Harmonization of the pipeline for seizure detection to phenotype post-traumatic epilepsy in a preclinical multicenter study on post-traumatic epileptogenesis

•We harmonized the surgical and data collection procedures, equipment and data analysis for chronic EEG recording in order to phenotype PTE in this rat model across the three study sites of The Epilepsy Bioinformatics Study for Antiepileptogenic Therapy (EpiBioS4Rx).•EEG recordings were acquired from at least 4 channels, minimum sampling rate was 512 Hz, utilizing a finite impulse response and a high-pass 0.1 Hz filter. Impedance were kept below 10 KΩ.•Remove existence of AC noise (50 or 60 Hz) essential to maintain good quality of EEG.•The three centers were able to consistently phenotype seizures in the lateral FPI model by applying the pipeline presented here. The Epilepsy Bioinformatics Study for Antiepileptogenic Therapy (EpiBioS4Rx) Centre without walls is an NIH funded multicenter consortium. One of EpiBioS4Rx projects is a preclinical post-traumatic epileptogenesis biomarker study that involves three study sites: The University of Eastern Finland, Monash University (Melbourne) and the University of California Los Angeles. Our objective is to create a platform for evaluating biomarkers and testing new antiepileptogenic treatments for post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE) using the lateral fluid percussion injury (FPI) model in rats. As only 30–50% of rats with severe lateral FPI develop PTE by 6 months post-injury, prolonged video-EEG monitoring is crucial to identify animals with PTE. Our objective is to harmonize the surgical and data collection procedures, equipment, and data analysis for chronic EEG recording in order to phenotype PTE in this rat model across the three study sites. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) was induced using lateral FPI in adult male Sprague-Dawley rats aged 11–12 weeks. Animals were divided into two cohorts: a) the long-term video-EEG follow-up cohort (Specific Aim 1), which was implanted with EEG electrodes within 24 h after the injury; and b) the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) follow-up cohort (Specific Aim 2), at 5 months after lateral FPI. Four cortical epidural screw electrodes (2 ipsilateral, 2 contralateral) and three intracerebral bipolar electrodes were implanted (septal CA1 and the dentate gyrus, layers II and VI of the perilesional cortex both anterior and posterior to the injury site). During the 7th post-TBI month, animals underwent 4 weeks of continuous video-EEG recordings to diagnose of PTE. All centers harmonized the induction of TBI and surgical procedures for the implantation of EEG recordings, utilizing 4 or mo