@ARTICLE{Shahabi, author = {Es'haghi, Fatemeh and Shahabi, Parviz and Frounchi, Javad and Sadighi, Mina and Yousefi, Hadi and }, title = {Investigation of ECG Changes in Absence Epilepsy on WAG/ Rij Rats}, volume = {6}, number = {2}, abstract ={Introduction: Seizures are symptoms associated with abnormal electrical activity in electroencephalogram (EEG). The present study was designed to determine the effect of absence seizure on heart rate (HR) changes in electrocardiogram (ECG). Methods: HR alterations were recorded simultaneous with spike and wave discharges (SWD) by EEG in 6 WAG/Rij rats as a well characterized and validated genetic animal epilepsy model. Moreover, 6 control rats were used to distinguish the differences of HR changes between various groups. Electrodes were placed on the skull and under the chest skin, minimizing time delay and signal attenuation. HR was calculated by an adaptable algorithm based on continues wavelet transform (CWT) particular for this study. Three main features of HR minimum, maximum, and mean values were estimated for pre-ictal and ictal intervals for all seizures. Results: ECG beats detected with sensitivity of 99.9% and positive predictability of 99.8% based on CWT. HR deceleration was found in 86% of the seizures. There were statistically significant (P }, URL = {http://bcn.iums.ac.ir/article-1-545-en.html}, eprint = {http://bcn.iums.ac.ir/article-1-545-en.pdf}, journal = {Basic and Clinical Neuroscience Journal}, doi = {}, year = {2015} }