Interictal epileptiform discharges do not change before seizures during sleep.

PURPOSE Whether interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs) increase, decrease, or are unchanged before epileptic seizures has implications for the pathophysiology of epilepsy. Prior studies relating IEDs and seizures have not demonstrated a change in IEDs before seizures. However, they have not controlled for changes in the depth of sleep. Our objective was to test the hypothesis that IEDs are related to seizures during sleep while adjusting for log delta power (LDP), a continuous measure of sleep depth. METHODS Twenty-two seizures during sleep were identified in 16 subjects with epilepsy admitted for presurgical monitoring. The IEDs that occurred in the hour of sleep before each seizure were used to test the relation between IEDs and seizure occurrence. Sleep depth was measured by LDP (quantity of 1- to 4-Hz activity in 30-s epochs), and records were scored visually for sleep staging and for IEDs. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were applied. RESULTS Adjusting for LDP, number of seizures before the current seizure, quartile of the night, and total number of IEDs that occurred during the night, IED did not increase or decrease before seizures (p > 0.1). The rate of IEDs increased directly with LDP (p=0.0001), as shown in prior work. CONCLUSIONS IEDs are not activated or suppressed before seizures during sleep, suggesting that different pathophysiologic processes underlie these two phenomena. These results corroborate prior studies, while providing a more advanced analysis by adjusting for sleep depth and applying multivariate logistic regression analyses.