Thursday, December 7, 2006

Sleep-related Epilepsy

"In a review of 100 consecutive cases of nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy [16], 28% occurred in sleep stages 3 or 4, and only 3% during REM. Clear epileptiform abnormalities on routine EEG occurred in less than half of patients. Forty-two patients showed a clear ictal discharge on polysomnography."(1.)

"O'Regan et al. [19] studied 25 children with an acquired disorder of communication and seizures, but not strictly meeting criteria for LKS. EEGs were uniformly epileptiform, usually (16 of 25 patients) worsening with sleep. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was typically normal, but single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) was abnormal (22 of 25 patients). Most were considered to have a receptive aphasia. Language deficits have been hypothesized to result from the persistent epileptic discharges, as evidenced by hypometabolism on SPECT [19]."(1.)

(1.)Sleep-related Epilepsy
Carl W. Bazil, MD, PhD
Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports 2003, 3:167-172
Current Science, Inc. ISSN 1528-4042
Copyright © 2006 by Current Science, Inc.
http://www.current-reports.com/article.cfm?PubID=NR03-2-3-01&Type=Article&KeyWords=